UK looks to robots to boost Its stalling economy

Businesses in the UK are being pushed toward automation as labor becomes more expensive and harder to ￰0￱ shift is already visible in small firms that once relied on large teams to handle basic ￰1￱ example is K10, a Japanese takeaway chain with five sites in the City of ￰2￱ company’s owner, Maurice Abboudi, said rising costs have forced him to change how his business operates:- “We had 52 people working pre-Budget. We’ve now got ￰3￱ costs of the National Insurance and business rates increases were over £160,000 for us and we’re a small ￰4￱ our profit for the year was absolutely decimated.” The business did not fire ￰5￱ when people left, they were not replaced.

Instead, the sites added ordering kiosks similar to those in McDonald’s. Customers now go to a screen instead of a till ￰6￱ said this was necessary after the £25bn tax hit to employers under Rachel Reeves’s first ￰7￱ move is now common among firms dealing with rising operating ￰8￱ taxes are only part of the ￰9￱ country is ￰10￱ are more pensioners and fewer working-age ￰11￱ need to produce the same output with fewer workers. K10 now uses automated ovens and outsources its vegetable ￰12￱ with staff numbers down by a quarter, each branch still handles 400 to 500 lunchtime ￰13￱ adjust operations Britain’s aging population is often described as an economic burden.

A smaller workforce would need to support a larger retired population, which could push taxes even ￰14￱ Abboudi’s case shows another ￰15￱ removed due to cost pressures could later become more valuable when the labor pool ￰16￱ may force companies to invest in technology that lifts ￰17￱ of productivity has been linked to weak wage growth and stagnant living ￰18￱ Acemoglu, a Nobel prize-winning economist at MIT , said, “With an ageing population, there may be an impetus for employers to invest more in machinery, especially those that would substitute for certain types of ￰19￱ may increase productivity.” He pointed to South Korea, Japan, and ￰20￱ countries aged faster than others in the 1990s through ￰21￱ response, their companies invested in robotics and related ￰22￱ said this helped them become global leaders in industries such as car ￰23￱ rates in the UK are ￰24￱ fertility rate is 1.4 children per woman, the lowest since at least ￰25￱ keep population size stable, the rate would need to be ￰26￱ 100 people represented today’s population, their number would fall to 77 by the next ￰27￱ could offset this, but public opposition has ￰28￱ the same time, the number of pensioners is ￰29￱ Office for National Statistics said there are now twice as many people living to 100 as there were twenty years ￰30￱ debate future impact The Office for Budget Responsibility projects government debt could rise from around 100% of GDP to more than 270% of GDP by the ￰31￱ not all economists agree that ageing will slow the ￰32￱ said, “Ageing societies if anything grow faster not slower than normal, non-ageing societies.” He said the past three to four decades do not support the idea that ageing is an automatic drag on ￰33￱ Vassalou, head of the Pictet Research Institute, said the public is being told two opposing stories at the same time: that AI will destroy jobs, and that ageing will create labor ￰34￱ said both claims are treated negatively, even though they are linked.

“Most of the work out there focusses on how deteriorating demographics will hit growth and lead to economic ￰35￱ the other hand, there is a lot of talk about the effects of AI, and it’s all about replacing workers and creating unemployment,” she ￰36￱ argued technology responds to the need for ￰37￱ expand into food and retail The UK has lagged behind other advanced economies in adopting robots , partly because it had a younger workforce and higher ￰38￱ equation is ￰39￱ labor becomes expensive, companies replace ￰40￱ said this could benefit workers who ￰41￱ labor is scarce, wages rise and workers move into higher-skilled ￰42￱ said automation is spreading ￰43￱ said, “The future is going to be all about robotics.

It’s happening already.” He described a fully automated pizza shop prototype: the dough is opened by machine, sauces and cheese added, cooked on a conveyor, sliced by robotic arm, boxed, and sent ￰44￱ person may handle toppings or load a delivery ￰45￱ said this could be common in 10 to 15 ￰46￱ future pensioners place an order, the food may move from kitchen to doorstep without a single human ￰47￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.