Description according to manufacturers
Mr Indus still owns a production company and he is aware that not everything can be done by robots and AI, which still need improvement. The company's human resources management therefore focuses on headhunting, recruiting and providing continuing training for people who are already highly qualified, notably in order to enable very high-quality maintenance of the robots present in the factory and in R&D.
The latter, carried out in part by AI, still requires very experienced engineers and scientists to cover everything not handled by big data in particular. Maintenance, carried out by humans, has made it possible to achieve productivity gains that have offset the heavy investment and the decline in consumers' purchasing power. If one wanted to make light of it, one would say that with fewer human resources to manage, there is far less sick leave to deal with.
But the situation is no laughing matter and Mr Indus is aware that he is one of the lucky ones who survived. As-a-service sales overtook conventional sales long ago: 80% of sales are made through platforms and bots. On many occasions, Mr Indus has wondered about the possibility of selling directly without going through platforms, but their market share and marketing power are far too strong. For now, he has managed to contract with certain platforms in a win-win spirit, but how long will that last? What about the new platform mergers taking shape in his field? And what about ever shorter delivery times to consumers (within the day) and the desire to limit the use of storage space? The aim is to reach 99% of sales through platforms, quickly. This is becoming possible, but it requires constant reorganisation to improve efficiency, as demanded by the auditors paid by the platforms.
With government directives not being very precise, market developments could take any turn. Anything is possible. He himself, during the transition period towards near-total service provision, took advantage of the laxity of European regulation to work around - marginally, of course - the tax frameworks.
In the meantime, he is campaigning for a reduction in the tax on AI and robots.