Rise of the digital workforce

SINGAPORE has only one precious, and very scarce, resource: its people. Every individual - regardless of age - has something meaningful to contribute to our economy and society at large, and must be empowered to do so. With an ageing population where one in five residents will be above the age of 65 by 2030, Singapore will need to find ways not only to ensure that it does not leave the vulnerable segment of older workers behind, but also to leverage their cumulative wealth of knowledge and experience.

This is easier said than done. With highly intelligent robots encroaching into the domains that once exclusively belonged to humans, many jobs in the food and beverage (F&B) sector that exist today may be gone tomorrow. These robots do not simply make an employee more efficient, they have the potential to completely replace them. The impact of this trend must not be taken lightly. For starters, Singapore has some 2,500 restaurants, and this does not even include the other players in the value chain.

Indeed, the robots are already at our shores. At TungLok's central kitchen located in Tai Seng Street, for instance, robots are tossing kung pao chicken in woks, mimicking the stir-frying action of a chef. Meanwhile, drone waiters, navigating with the use of infra-red sensors, whizz above the heads of diners charted by a computer programme in Timbre Group's restaurants.