Page 15 - DPSA_SDR Vol 12 No.2 2019

SERVICE DELIVERY TECHNOLOGY

Automated work in the Because of this, he said, markets have
fourth industrial revolution become more rational and “rational
markets are more efficient”. Marwala
also used the example of the automation
Professor Marwala took some time of operations at the then SA Breweries
to explain the journey the world has as an indication that the current digital
travelled from the first to the fourth era is already having an impact on
revolutions. According to him, while the working-class jobs. The liquor brewer
fourth marks the advent of the digital used to have a plant in East London
era, the First Industrial Revolution was that employed 3 000 people, but after
dominated by steam mechanisation it was automated some jobs became
where hand production methods redundant.
were replaced by iron production and
chemical manufacturing, which gave He said the world was entering what
rise to the factory system. This took is called a “post-work” era and while
place in the 18th century. The Second conventional wisdom predicts that the
Industrial Revolution, between 1870 and working class will be the biggest losers,
1940, was an era when electricity was there is a need for the professional class
introduced and the petroleum and steel to re-skill themselves.
industries were expanded. The Third
Industrial Revolution, which Marwala “But if you see the scale at which many
described as an era of knowledge white-collar jobs are being automated,
distribution, was about computerisation I think the professional class must
and the birth of the internet. The actually re-skill themselves. They must
fourth industrial revolution is about prepare themselves much more than
cyber-physical systemisation, artificial they are doing now,” he said.
cognisation and robotisation. Marwala
believes the world is now entering an For instance, professionals in the banking
era where a great deal of work is going sector, who initially were only required
to be done by machines. to have accounting skills, must expand
their skills set. “The conclusion … is that
Professional class must re- bankers of the future must have some
form of understanding for technology,
skill some form of understanding of society
and some form of understanding for
Sharing his own research into artificial finance and accounting,” he said.
intelligence and the fourth industrial
revolution, he said artificial intelligence Skills that will survive the
has had an impact on several
professions, from healthcare and the fourth industrial revolution
economy to political science and
psychology. Marwala used the example Marwala said skills that can survive
of the introduction of artificial intelligence the fourth industrial revolution can be
into stock trading, where human traders acquired through multi-disciplinary
were replaced by artificial intelligence education where human and social
traders. Factors such as emotion were sciences understand science and
removed from the markets and decisions technology, and vice versa.
are made purely based on data. The skills that will be required for the
digital revolution age are, among
“Before, when the stock market was still others, cognitive abilities, systems skills;
down in Johannesburg and everybody complex problem-solving skills; content
was shouting prices, there were two skills; process skills; social skills;
criteria you needed in order to work in resource management skills; technical
the stock market as a trader. One, you skills and physical skills. n
must have been tall because if you
are not tall enough, when you call the SAnews.gov.za
price, they won’t see you. The second
one was that you needed to have an
imposing voice. If you had a soft voice
you wouldn’t survive there.

“But now the stock market is no longer
manned by human beings. People are
now using computers to trade in the
stock market,” he said.

Volume 12 No.2 of 2019 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 13