Jobs & Automation: The Real Picture

Automation panics make the same mistake every time: treating a job as a single task. Jobs are bundles of dozens of tasks — and technology automates some of them.

The ATM is the classic case. It took over the teller's defining task — dispensing cash — starting in the 1970s. Teller jobs didn't vanish; US teller employment even grew for decades as branches got cheaper to open, while the work itself shifted toward advising and sales. Spreadsheet software was supposed to eliminate accountants; instead it made analysis cheap, which created more demand for people who could interpret it.