Mr. Ed Brophy:

Deputy Shanahan was at our fulfilment centre last year and it was great to welcome the Deputy and other committee members. The members would have seen the kind of concrete examples of how advanced technology, including AI, can enable the work of the forklift driver and that kind of worker the Deputy just mentioned. For example, using AI has cut down on walking times that workers have to do in our fulfilment centres. The members may be aware that our fulfilment centres and warehouses are the size of nine football fields. They are very big places, so to cut down on the amount of walking workers must do has made their activity there more efficient and has cut down on exposure to safety issues with the types of activity they do. It has increased the ergonomic aspect of their work in what they are picking, what they are packing and what they are storing. This is all using advanced technology.

I do not have an answer for how the forklift driver, for example, can be assisted with AI necessarily in terms of reskilling, but the technology provides an opportunity in making their job more fulfilling while freeing them up to do more skill-full tasks.