The governor of the Bank of England himself, Andrew Bailey, said it a few days ago: "The majority of Britons have to accept that they have become poorer." It is certainly not the case, nor that of the great executives and presidents of boards of directors, but it is that of the 55,000 workers of BT (the United Kingdom telephone company privatized by Margaret Thatcher) and the 11,000 of Vodafone who are going to lose their positions in a massive restructuring plan to reduce costs and increase profits for their shareholders.
And it is not simply that jobs are going to disappear (some do), but that they are going to be taken over by artificial intelligence, within a revolution that first seemed like science fiction, then in the medium term, recently just around the corner. and now suddenly it's already here. BT is one of the few companies in the industry that still offers an old-fashioned service, and when there are problems customers can talk to a person instead of a machine. Soon it won't be like that. Another jewel in the crown that loses its luster.
This despite having registered 24,000 million euros in revenue in the last annual exercise (1% less than in the previous one) and profits of 2,000 million euros (a fall of 12%), which the markets have considered disappointing and punished. with a 5% drop in the stock market when the results were made public. BT managers too, in a country where the gap between rich and poor, between the fruits of capital and labor, has been increasingly abysmal since the pandemic.
The announcement in a few days of a total of 66,000 layoffs in the telephone and communications sector has fueled the debate on the social and economic impact of artificial intelligence in a country where until now unemployment is not a problem, but it is the lack of productivity. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been forced to change his tune, moving from a laissez faire attitude about technological change to one of greater vigilance, and if necessary, interventionism by the state. He says he believes they will be beneficial to national security and the economy, but "there are worrisome elements."
On one side of the discussion are economists like Steve Hare, from the British multinational software company Hare, who predict that AI will change the dynamics of the country for the better and make it more productive, “freeing workers from manual and mechanical tasks, and allowing them to focus their energies on more complicated and creative tasks.” On the other, those who fear the loss of millions of jobs, a growing elitism and the increase in misinformation.
Progress also has its price. In addition to the advent of artificial intelligence, a decisive factor for the demolition of the BT and Vodafone templates is the implementation of 5G mobile technology and the replacement of old copper cables with fiber optic ones that require much less maintenance and facilitate fault diagnosis. In addition to the customer service department, the other most affected will be the engineers (many subcontracted) in charge of repairs.
Needless to say, the unions that represent the majority of BT and Vodafone employees are not jumping for joy, even if the announcement of the brutal restructuring came as no surprise. They are going to try to make the layoffs happen gradually, and whenever possible it is about early retirement and negotiated resignations, although it seems extremely improbable to eliminate 66,000 jobs by mutual consensus. Some will disappear due to the merger of departments and the reduction of managers in both companies.
BT's goal, to satisfy its shareholders and respond to market expectations, is to eliminate €4 billion in annual operating costs thanks to artificial intelligence and fiber optics. Even if the customer has to talk to a robot.
