ABSTRACT
The modern economy was built on automation, so it’s natural to assume that the future will be defined by automation as well. It seems like every week there’s a new study about the job-destroying potential of robotics and artificial intelligence. Companies are using their lack of automation as a selling point. They’re doing this because customers like the feeling of a personal connection to the farmers, brewers, and artisans who make the products they’re buying. As automation makes everyday products cheaper and more plentiful, people will increasingly shift their spending to goods and services where a connection to a human provider is seen as a key benefit. Over time, technological progress is steadily wringing inefficiencies out of manufacturing processes. But in service-related industries, the ‘inefficiencies’ involved in talking to other people are often a key benefit.
