Digital technology is making it far easier to get things done in everyday life, from banking to ordering food, buying clothes, books and music. A few taps on a smartphone and your transaction is complete.
Communication in general has been revolutionised by access to cheap and reliable broadband service. Not that long ago, if you wanted to talk to a friend or family member in another country, it would cost you a dollar a minute or more. Today you can simply open up Line, WhatsApp, Skype or other applications and have a chat for free.
The rapid adoption of new digital platforms was expected to threaten the profitability of telecommunication companies that used to rely on voice calling, especially long distance, for most of their profits. However, they have adapted successfully for the most part and continue to thrive financially as data carriers.
Still, there's no denying that advances in digital technology, with their potential to reduce costs and improve efficiency, are starting to represent a direct threat to some businesses and the jobs of the people who work for them.
Take Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract manufacturer, as an example. The Taiwanese company, whose customers include Apple and Samsung, had replaced 60,000 Chinese workers with machines as of May this year. As a result, its overall headcount has been reduced from 110,000 to 50,000.
"As our manufacturing processes and the products we produce become more technologically advanced, automation is playing an increasingly important role in our operations," a Foxconn spokesman told Asia Focus by email.
The workers who stayed are those who are able to perform more value-added tasks, while the ones leaving will have to learn new skills or hope to catch on at employers where tasks cannot be done by machines.
"As part of our long-term growth strategy, we will continue to use both manpower and automation in our manufacturing operations, and we expect to continue to maintain significant employee levels throughout our global operations," the Foxconn spokesman added.
Even in the well-paid banking sector, technology is starting to have an impact on employment as more transactions are done online.
For the first time in Thai history, more bank branches are closing than opening this year, Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said at a recent economic forum in Bangkok. The weak economy is partly to blame, but for the most part banks realise they don't need as many physical branches now that their retail customers are able to take care of most routine transactions on their smartphones.
UP IN THE AIR
Rapid advances in the capability of drones, meanwhile, are opening up new frontiers in the logistics and delivery business.
Foodpanda, an online food ordering marketplace, tested drone delivery in Singapore a few months ago. By doing so, according to co-founder and CEO Ralf Wenzel, it hopes to improve efficiency and increase the customer appeal of its delivery system.
With drones, a delivery that normally takes one hour by road can be completed in 30 minutes, so food is fresher when it reaches the customer's house.
An Australia Post drone delivers a package during a trial in Melbourne in April this year. The first test deliveries to customers' homes are planned later this year. (Reuters photo)
"Drones could also be used just for the last few metres, to take off from delivery cars or bikes and rise up to building windows," Tim Schefenacker, global head of communications of Foodpanda, told Asia Focus.
"There are many things we are exploring, but it is important to say that before anything can be implemented, governments need to lay down the appropriate regulations for unmanned aerial devices."
The rise of other technologies could further complicate the outlook for some businesses. Virtual reality headsets, for example, are improving in quality and comfort and coming down in price. That opens up the possibility of moviegoers opting to stay home and enjoy a cinema-like experience from their own sofas. That could pose a threat to cinemas, although they have successfully resisted many threats that pundits said could put them out of business, from TV to video and DVD players.
While cinema ushers have one foot in the safety zone, security guards face an 89% risk of losing their jobs in the next 20 years, according to a risk calculation system based on data supplied by Michael Osborne and Carl Frey, from the Martin School at Oxford University.
In fact, low-skilled work in general could be under siege from new technology. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 56% of all salaried employment in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, is at high risk of displacement due to technology in the next two decades.
According to Yongyuth Chalamwong, research director for labour development with the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), machines and robots will be used more widely in farming and agricultural processing in Asia for activities such as planting, taking care of crops and harvesting.
In manufacturing, more machines are being used to replace human workers in order to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Many 20th century skills can now be handled by machines.
"Dangerous manufacturing processes, repetitive work or work that requires precision, quality or speed can be easily replaced by automated machines," Dr Yongyuth told Asia Focus. "For example in the automotive industry, robots can replace thousands of workers."
Though jobs dealing with the physical labour in a closed environment seem highly replaceable, in an open environment with conditions that are not easily controlled, robots can hardly replace humans. Algorithms that would allow robots to replicate complex human behaviour are still years away from achieving those goals.
Cleaning robots have been around for a long time, for example, but have not been perfected to the point where they can function properly in rooms with odd-shaped furniture sticking out everywhere, books piled up in random places, or clothes scattered all over the floor. Cleaning ladies need not fear just yet.
While workers with mechanical brains will be taking over more and more routine tasks, there is an upside for humans with good "soft" skills. Ian Pearson, an author and futurologist with World Innovation Foundation, wrote on the Tech Insider website that humans' ability to think creatively, among other specifically human skills such as spontaneous leadership, empathy and human understanding, will protect a certain subset of jobs.
Computers obviously won't be creating new laws or making judicial decisions. Logical reasoning, understanding, flexibility and empathy are what distinguish us humans from all those brilliant robots.
"Tasks that are dominated by interpersonal interaction, emotional interaction, caring, or otherwise inherently human in nature cannot be so easily automated, though they can be if the situation doesn't require the same emotional depth and realism," Dr Pearson told Asia Focus.
He suggests that jobs that need certain human touch such as hairdressing, restaurant service, child care, nursing, teaching and policing, are ones that are hard to be replaced by robots.
"There is nothing inherently impossible in automating these, but it is obvious at the outset that people prefer people in these sorts of roles," he noted. "Although many of our abilities decline with age, our human skills generally improve."
Dr Yongyuth also supported this idea, saying that humans are still preferred in specialised and customised services.
"Filleting fish and tapping rubber are some good examples. Machines can do these too, but not the same, not as well [as humans]."
The best way to survive the robotic revolution, in short, is to be able to do something more creatively than a robot, be more understanding than a robot, and practise spontaneous leadership skills.