WorkingNation president Jane Oates recently spoke with the Washington Examiner about the impact of COVID-19 on the acceleration of AI and tech tools in the workplace and what it means for jobs.

“Many employers have used this COVID time to accelerate automation,” said Jane Oates, president of employment think tank WorkingNation and a former U.S. Department of Labor official under the Obama administration.

Companies have stepped up automation plans because of lost productivity due to employees not showing up for work either because they were sick or were sheltering at home to help slow the spread of the virus. This disruption would not have occurred with robots.

“Employers who were hit by the disease … particularly the ones that stayed open during COVID — the grocery stores, the Walmarts, the Targets — they are going to look at automation more because they had trouble getting people to work … who were impacted by the disease,” Oates said.

Read the full Washington Examiner article here.