An expert in robotic technologies believes that robots will enhance the way human beings work in future - and not displace tens of millions of jobs.<br /><br />Professor Helen Hastie, of Heriot-Watt University, tells the Scotsman’s Future of Work podcast series: “Robotics and autonomous systems are a tool to help humans be more efficient and effective. So the net impact on jobs and quality of work and life will be a positive one.”<br /><br />Rob Huggins, a technology recruitment specialist, argues that the future of work is “humans developing superpowers through the use of machines” - in the third podcast in the series, developed in partnership with Skills Development Scotland.<br /><br />Paul Winstanley, Chief Executive of CENSIS, an innovation centre focused on sensors, imaging and the Internet of Things, says: “Humans are still way better at identifying a person than a machine is. Where we can use automation is to sift data and get to a point where we need a human to make a decision, because machines are generally poorer at making those nuanced decisions. The future is a hybrid between the two - human and machine.”<br /><br />Claire Gillespie, Digital Technologies lead for Skills Development Scotland, says: “The future is human, and while I absolutely believe that technology is part of it, humans create the technology and control how far that goes. We need to keep humans very much at the centre of this.”
