Singaporean businesses have started mass-promoting robot assistants due to labor shortages. Reuters writes about it.

According to the Singapore Ministry of Human Resources, from December 2019 to September 2021, the number of foreign workers decreased by 235,700 due to immigration restrictions imposed against the backdrop of the pandemic. Officials said this is accelerating “the pace of technology adoption and automation by companies.”

Construction firm Gammon says it has started using Spot’s quadrupedal robot to scan through dirt and gravel areas. After checking the progress of the job, the data is returned to the control room.

According to Gammon general manager Michael O’Connell, Spot only requires one employee to use it instead of the two previously manual workers.

“Replacing the need for an onsite workforce with autonomous solutions is gaining momentum,” he said.

O’Connell believes the employee shortage in the industry, exacerbated by the pandemic, is going nowhere.

The National Library of Singapore has introduced two robots that can scan the labels of 100,000 books (about 30% of its collection) per day.

“Employees do not need to read numbers one by one, which reduces the routine and labor-intensive workload. [работы]Li Yi Fuang, deputy library director, said:

Robots are also used to solve customer-related tasks: More than 30 metro stations have devices that prepare coffee for passengers.

However, some users of the services noted the lack of communication with people.

“We always want to have some kind of human contact,” said subway passenger Ashish Kumar.

Recall that in April, Elon Musk said that the Tesla robot business would become more profitable than the automobile business.

In January, researchers reported that by 2040, widespread automation in businesses will leave 12 million Europeans unemployed.