Google introduced its artificial intelligence (AI) based voice assistant at its annual developers conference – Google I/O – last year. At the time, the tech giant demonstrated how Duplex could make reservations and even have a chat with real people over a phone call. The tech giant piloted the program in select states in the US last year expanding it to a total of 48 states in the country. Now over a year and half after its initial roll out, the company has finally begun launching the Google Duplex in other parts of the world.

And the first country beyond the US where the Mountain View, California based tech giant would be rolling out Duplex is New Zealand.

This news was confirmed by Google over its New Zealand-based blog post. “Starting this week, we’ll start a pilot to confirm holiday hours for a small number of local businesses in New Zealand with the help of the Google Duplex technology,” Google’s VP of Engineering, Scott Huffman wrote in the blog post.

Starting October 28, some businesses in New Zealand will receive an automated call from Google asking to confirm their hours for the upcoming Labour Day public holiday. Once the pilot group confirms their timings, this information will be updated on to Google Maps and Search for anyone searching for the business info for the holiday, which in turn would not only make it easier for the users to look specific stuff during the holiday rush but also for the businesses by bringing in more consumers.

Google in its blog post confirmed that it would disclose that the business is speaking with an automated system – Google Duplex — when making a call.

The company in its blog post also said that businesses can also opt-out of receiving calls from Google. Businesses can either tell the company over the phone – presumably in the form of feedback or during/after an ongoing call — or change their settings in Google My Business section of their Google accounts.

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Yes. Some jobs will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. Like a tornado, technology doesn’t leave the grounds it touches the same.  Artificial Intelligence is getting so good at everything and all this puts humans on the verge of losing their jobs. Employers want the best workers, and if AI does a better job, it renders human workers useless.

This is the shortest version of saying that most jobs will eventually get replaced by technology. And no one is safe. Artificial Intelligence will soon take the role of many white-collar jobs too, just like machines have taken away many blue-collar jobs. Just like the tractors took away many farming jobs. Scary?

We have curated a list of jobs that may soon be replaced by Artificial Intelligence technology. These jobs have a formulaic sequence of repetitive activities or they are cheaper when automated than when done by a human. Such foreseeable patterns are easy to replicate through advanced machine learning algorithms.

Call center customer care.

Why: At most call centers, humans are hired to answer and respond to customer queries. However, during the Google I/O 2018 event, Google showcased a demo version of Google Duplex. It was so amazing you wouldn’t think it’s a demo version. The Assistant making calls and interacting with a real person at the other end of the line is not only mind-blowing but also well, job taking. Google Duplex is so good and it’s finished version can easily replace the human workforce at the call center.

Tele-marketers.

Why: By now, chances are high you’ve received one of those robo-call from telecom companies and various service providers. In Uganda, most people remember these robo-calls during the presidential elections when a robo-call in President Museveni’s voice called a number of people thanking them for voting.

Many people hate this type of marketing and its return on investment is small. This makes it a target for businesses to automate it with cheaper and mostly more efficient AI.

Clerks

Why: Most bookkeeping is moving to automated programs like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Microsoft Office. These are more affordable than hiring people. One program can automatically perform all the company’s book-keeping.

Couriers

Why: The delivery guys have become an endangered species in some developed countries. They are being replaced by drones and robots. Consequently, this space may soon get dominated by automation and AI drones.

There are no delivery drones in many parts of Africa. In the technology world, what happens in Rome does not end there. Soon AI will make its way to these markets too and the delivery boy will have some joblessness to deal with.

Retail shopkeepers

Why: Some shopping has moved from the physical store to online platforms. Companies are trying to make the shopping experience as awesome at awesomeness with features such as self-checkout. Buyers are becoming more tech-savvy and companies may be looking towards AI to fix this. Physical shopkeepers are likely to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence and other technologies.

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