REGULAR
We live in revolutionary times
David Garcia, Chair of the British Cleaning Council (BCC), says that the AI revolution will transform, rather than take cleaning jobs.
There is a huge amount of concern and worry nationwide about the future, as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution picks up steam and we start to see changes in our society. As a result, AI is all over the news at the moment.
In the past few months, the implementation of a national AI strategy, HMRC introducing AI-powered virtual assistants to handle public queries and provide services, and an AI system for diagnosing eye diseases are among the stories which have made headlines.
In my last column, I mentioned the decline of entry-level jobs across the UK which was being attributed to AI. More and more of us are using AI every day – whether to write a job application, write social media messages or as search engines on our laptops, but what impact will AI have on jobs in the cleaning industry?
Robots, cobots and AI are already having a huge impact and change is gathering pace, but there are limitations, meaning that the human cleaning operative is still in demand.
Autonomous floor scrubbers, smart sensors and predictive maintenance software tackle most routine cleaning tasks automatically these days. In offices, warehouses and public spaces, robot vacuum cleaners and floor scrubbers carry out repetitive tasks like vacuuming and sweeping the floor, washing windows, wiping and sanitising large surfaces, and refilling supplies.
These are roles which were previously carried by human cleaning staff, but instead of losing their jobs, cleaning staff have seen them change. They’re now switching to more valuable and detail-focused tasks.
AI, robots and cobots are not ideal at the many cleaning jobs which require a level of flexibility, attention to detail and human judgment, so these are now the domain of humans. The human touch is required for complicated cleaning spaces like homes or businesses with irregular layouts, or jobs that involve different surfaces and materials.
AI-powered robots and cobots cannot provide the delicate touch and fine motor skills of human staff, who are also
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much better at improvising when things go wrong, such as dealing with accidental spills.
There are other traits that humans bring to the cleaning industry that AI will not be able to replicate any time soon. Humans have emotional Intelligence. With our empathy, we are better at customer service than AI, and our ability to build trust and rapport mean we have the upper hand when it comes to working with clients and colleagues.
I can’t see AI-powered machines taking over these kinds of tasks in the foreseeable future. For all these reasons, the cleaning industry always has been and remains a people- oriented industry.
The introduction of these new technologies has had positive results overall. Service quality and cleaning standards have risen. Efficiency has been improved and resource management optimised.
More interesting roles mean human staff are enjoying more job satisfaction as well as acquiring new skills. This opinion was reinforced recently following the publication of a major report which modelled the potential impact of AI on the workforce, and found that cleaning staff could be optimistic.
It found office clerks, receptionists, bookkeepers, sales, marketing and public relations professionals, business and systems analysts and programmers would lose the most employment by 2050 due to AI.
Cleaning, laundry workers, public administration and safety, business administration managers, construction and mining labourers, and hospitality workers were all occupations that are least likely to be automated.
So, for anyone working in an at-risk industry, think about futureproofing your career and making a switch to the cleaning industry.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org x.com/TomoCleaning
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