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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

13. Automation of Knowledge Work and Africa’s Transformation Agenda: Threats, Opportunities, and Possibilities

Author : Kobena T. Hanson

Published in: Disruptive Technologies, Innovation and Development in Africa

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In today’s rapidly changing digital economy, driven by disruptive technologies and innovation, the means of automation have grown, so too have the number of applications and markets that demand these technologies. Indeed, the growth in artificial intelligence and machine learning, while transforming the workplace, also free up the need for human labor. The resulting revised landscape is impacting labor force patterns, employment, and inequality by creating new markets and business practices, new product infrastructure, and different labor skills. Against the backdrop of the debate on disruptive innovation as the key to socioeconomic transformation rather than disruption, this chapter interrogates how the growing automation of knowledge work is shaping development in Africa and how countries are embracing the revised landscape in all its facets—the threats, possibilities, and opportunities.

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previous chapter Perspectives on Disruptive Innovations and Africa’s Services Sector

next chapter Digital Transformation: A Connected and “Disrupted” Africa

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Title: Automation of Knowledge Work and Africa’s Transformation Agenda: Threats, Opportunities, and Possibilities
Author: Kobena T. Hanson
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Disruptive Technologies, Innovation and Development in Africa
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40646-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-40647-9

Copyright Year: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40647-9_13

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