HEAD-TO-HEAD

Is technology leading
to greater income inequality?
Sorgt der technologische Fortschritt für mehr Ungleichheit? Ja, denn Tech-Unternehmer brauchen
heute kaum noch Angestellte, sagen die einen. Nein, denn neue Technologien schaffen neue Jobs,
sagen die anderen.

Interviews: MELITA CAMERON-WOOD

ADVANCED AUDIO ÜBUNGSHEFT
 YES “Technology is replacing jobs
across all industries” NO “We’ve moved from working
on technology to making it
work for us”
Technology has made the pie bigger, but pie Technology can be inclusive and help- adjust to sth.
the biggest piece is going to a smaller , Kuchen, Torte ful to all. We just need to adjust to the , sich an etw. anpassen

group of people. Some tech CEOs are at the expense of sb.
earning hundreds of millions of dollars. , auf Kosten von jmdm.
If you pay someone that much, it comes what’s more
, des Weiteren
at the expense of other employees. It’s not
just abstract money. replicate sth.
, etw. reproduzieren
What’s more, technology is replacing
jobs across all industries. Ten years ago, I X-ray [(eks reI]
, Röntgenbild
would have said that service-based indus-
recurrently
tries were most at risk of being automat-
, immer wieder
ed. Now, technology can replicate more
self-fulfilling
complex skills — in the medical field, for , selbsterfüllend
example, computer vision uses an algo-
suck sth. away
rithm to diagnose cancer cells by looking , etw. verschlingen,
at X-rays. That could mean we won’t need aufzehren
changes it brings about. Before alarm bring sth. about
clocks existed, someone would tap on , etw. herbeiführen,
mit sich bringen
people’s windows to wake them. That job
tap , klopfen
became obsolete, but it doesn’t mean the
window tapper didn’t have other options. obsolete [(QbsEli:t]
, veraltet, überholt
Technology has evolved a lot in recent
years, and we’ve moved from working on evolve , sich entwickeln
technology to making it work for us. Then, AI (artificial intelligence)
, KI (künstliche Intelli-
you’ve got quantum computers and gen- genz)
erative AI, the development of which will
eventually
create jobs because it’ll require scientists [I(ventSuEli]
and academics. Later on, there’ll probably , schließlich, letztendlich
be more programming languages, which become mainstream
will initially be used by engineers, but , hier: Standard werden

many radiologists in the future. savvy [(sÄvi] (ifml.) eventually, they’ll become mainstream rural [(rUErEl]
Once software code has been written, , versiert, kompetent and will benefit everyone. , ländlich

it automatically does what it’s supposed
to do, repeatedly. So, we’ve moved away
from the traditional model of recurrently
supplying inputs to create outputs. Com-
puterization of business processes means
that you don’t need as many people as
you would have needed in the past to cre-
ate wealth. You just need a small group of
people that can write the code and update
it periodically.
A lot of people are turning to tech
because they see it as a quick and easy
way to make money. It’s becoming a
self-fulfilling cycle, where tech is suck-
ing away resources and investment from
other areas. Even those who aren’t “tech-
nologically savvy” are looking for ways to
monetize online platforms — just look at
influencers.
Instead of trying to prevent the inevita-
ble, we have to educate people about how
Fotos: charles taylor/iStockphoto.com; Privat; Carito Photography/Privat
monetize sth.
, aus etw. Kapital schlagen
the inevitable
, das Unvermeidliche
pursue sth. [pE(sju:]
, etw. verfolgen
ultimately [(VltImEtli]
, letztendlich
PhD (Doctor of
Philosophy) , Dr. phil.
CFA (chartered financial
analyst)
, etwa: zertifizierte(r)
Finanzanalyst(in)
In the future, more advanced telecom- copywriting
, Erstellen von Werbe-
munications, like 5G and 6G, which are in
texten
development, will bring new technology
embrace sth.
and the internet to more countries. This , etw. annehmen
will increase access to higher education
pace
and better health care. , Tempo, Geschwindigkeit
Bringing 6G to every country will cre- emergence
ate jobs, too. And this won’t just benefit , Entstehung
people with high-income jobs and a high deputy head
level of education. The internet will ena- , stellvertretende(r)
Leiter(in)
ble rural tea farmers in the Global South
to join the global marketplace and in-
crease their income. Now, individual busi-
ness owners can use generative AI to do
their marketing and copywriting — tasks
that they had to delegate in the past.
We need to embrace trends and take
advantage of them because technology
develops at its own pace. We’re seeing the
emergence of fintech start-ups that help
to finance and support small businesses.

technology is reshaping wealth creation
and work, so people can make informed
choices about the professional path they
want to pursue. Ultimately, some career
choices may not exist in the future.
There are also more and more online ed-
ucation programmes, which will provide
people with better opportunities. Careers
will change as technology develops — we
just need to be open to changing.

BABATUNDE O. ODUSAMI,
PhD, CFA, finance professor, CRISTIANO BELLUCCI, Mehr zu diesem Thema
Widener University, Deputy head of product hier kostenlos anhören!
Pennsylvania, USA management, Fujitsu, Munich, www.business-
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/ Germany spotlight.de/
tundeodusami) (https://digitideas.com) audio-gratis/02

TRENDS 2/2024 Business Spotlight 17