Problems due to overly smart robots are not far off, no doubt about it. Only, most likely, they will not look like the epic uprising of the machines, like in “The Terminator.” No, the automatons will conquer us on the sly. First they will take our jobs, move into our homes, make us dependent on them and then...
However, this is already happening. For example, just recently the three largest banks in Japan announced that they were going to replace about 30,000 employees with programs or robots. According to representatives of these financial institutions, the automated business model contributes to profit growth. Thus, the Mizuho financial group aims to replace 8,000 jobs by 2021, and 19,000 by 2026. One of the reasons for this decision was a cost analysis. As it turned out, some actions and responsibilities of staff are duplicated, so the company plans to consolidate clerical work by shifting the responsibilities of routine tasks to an automated system. Changing the system will lead to a reduction in the number of employees. Thus, the company intends to be able to combine branches, reorganizing almost 800 branches. Bank Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is also seeking to streamline its business. The bank's president justified the restructuring of its management system by arguing that the traditional commercial banking model had already led to a structural recession. The company plans to automate 9,500 positions by 2023. Financial group Sumitomo Mitsui announced a decision to cut 4,000 jobs in 2020. According to the company, currently, a lot of employee effort and time comes down to checking money transfers, paying taxes and organizing payments, etc. Therefore, the first stage of automation will be the digitization of branch data for further use by a computer program.
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