It is undoubtable, that the world is facing a great challenge, because of the pandemic period, threatening at the same time the global development and sustainability.
Restriction measures, lockdowns and social distancing, have provoked major problems to the local economies, but they have also led to many technological advancements and adopting new ways of working and communicating.
In this context, the field of robotics that was under way of taking over gradually a market share in the labour market by replacing human beings, has now been accelerated, creating a totally new market but also social dilemmas at the same time.
More specifically, cleaning services, packaging services, taxi drivers and standardized works inside the logistics workflow, are about to increase dramatically in the robotics field, in the next few years, replacing more than 50% of human work.
This fact, will create a trend of automated work and services in many fields and the unemployment will increase at least in the short run.
As a result, the combination of automation and robotics during the pandemic period, is a very tough challenge for governments and the global community, since additional fiscal measures, will have to be applied in order to mitigate the social consequences and try to move the society, into a new financial equilibrium, that will be better off, for the majority of citizens, maintaining social welfare and a decent status of living.
It should be said, that the transitional period as we gradually return to a normality in the two upcoming years, is very crucial for the social cohesion and sustainability, because the governments should coordinate for global policies of supporting the transformation of labour market, by creating more job opportunities and give the chance to those who need it, to be further trained and educated, in order to follow the pattern of automation and use robots or robotic algorithms in favour of their life and be at the end more productive and efficient in their field of work.
In any case, and in order to conclude, we have to mention that pandemic per se, combined with new technology, cannot lead anywhere, if there is not any sustained fiscal stimulus, under a flexible monetary policy, in order to protect demand and supply and provide the necessary liquidity in the markets, in order for new jobs to be created and considering finally robotics and automation, not as a threat but as a competitive advantage for the society.