Automation: A Framework for a Sustainable Transition

Authors

• BSR Staff

  

As automation technologies emerge from the realm of science fiction to become business reality, competing narratives have taken hold in the popular imagination: Automation will spell the bleak end of global labor, or release a new wave of prosperity and productivity. With significant impacts forecasted for every sector and geography, automation will undoubtedly redefine the way we work in the 21st century.

In this report, we aim to help companies navigate the business and social implications of automation. Business leaders will be increasingly challenged to balance the productivity and innovation opportunities offered by new technologies with the need to preserve good jobs and livelihoods that ensure a thriving economy that works for all. The report outlines ways that companies can prepare the workforce for automation, while also improving the employment prospects for workers displaced by these technologies. In addition to outlining actions companies can take within their direct operations and among suppliers, the report also proposes several opportunities for the private sector to collaborate with governments and civil society to ensure a sustainable transition of the workforce to automation.