Perhaps We’ll All Keep Our Jobs

Artificial intelligence and automation won’t replace us just yet. For now, let them take the grunt work o our shoulders.

For as long as there have been robots, there have been conversations about them taking our jobs. Not just robots—any technology that o ers to make our jobs easier also threatens to make our jobs so easy, they become obsolete.

Automation and digitalization have become increasingly popular topics among food and beverage producers. It’s been an ongoing journey for years. But suddenly, exacerbated by the pandemic, manufacturers are finding it next to impossible to find the workers they need to get the job done.

It’s di cult not to sco these days at continued concerns about robots stealing jobs. In most cases, manufacturers simply cannot find the workers to complete the jobs. But then news came through about this hot new artificial intelligence (AI) capability from OpenAI called ChatGPT, and suddenly the shoe was on the other foot. Editors around here—some who had espoused the ideas of automation for a better workplace—were suddenly fearing for their jobs. Give it a prompt (“Write a 2,500-word article on remote troubleshooting in food manufacturing”), and soon out pops a reasonably constructed bit of prose.

How soon would we all be out of a job?!!

But really, the idea that a chatbot could soon take over live reporting and reasoning is no more an argument than automation pushing skilled humans out of the manufacturing space. Instead, we go back to an idea comparable to using robots for the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks. Use ChatGPT to write the social media blurbs or newsletter subject lines, say, while we focus instead on producing richer content.

In this issue, I like the example from Evolution Fresh (page 141), the cold-pressed juice maker that worked with Hiperbaric to automate tasks that were no fun for any of those workers. The robots are now doing the heavy repetitive lifting while the people focus on the things robots aren’t so good at.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

CHRISTINE BENSE

CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER

Turkey Hill

GREG FLICKINGER

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Nobell Foods

JOHN HILKER

FORMER DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING

Blommer Chocolate Company

VINCE NASTI

VP, OPERATIONS

Nation Pizza & Foods

JIM PRUNESTI

VP, ENGINEERING

Conagra Brands

LISA RATHBURN

VP, ENGINEERING

T. Marzetti

MARK SHAYE

VP, ENGINEERING

Ken’s Foods

TONY VANDENOEVER

FORMER DIRECTOR, SUPPLY

CHAIN ENGINEERING

PepsiCo

DIANE WOLF

FORMER VP OF ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS

Kraft Foods

BROOKE WYNN

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY

Smithfield Foods

JOE ZEMBAS

DIRECTOR, ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL SERVICES

The J.M. Smucker Company ahand@pmmimediagroup.com

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