Research Reports: Faculty of Commerce

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Browsing Research Reports: Faculty of Commerce by Subject "Artificial intelligence (AI)"

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    The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the survival of employee skills sets in the retail environment
    (The IIE, 2020) Ramlall, Sariksha
    The Fourth Industrial Revolution has taken the world by storm through advanced technology. The various technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres of global production systems (Martin, 2017). The current pace of technological development is exerting profound changes on the way people live and work in which, employee skills sets have to constantly be improved to keep up and remain relevant in line with the technologies of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Martin, 2017). Employees have had to improve their skills sets to survive this industrial revolution as well as familiarise themselves with the new modern forms of technology. In the retail environment online shopping has increased due to mobile applications and artificial intelligence, whilst this innovation keeps growing many jobs are being lost at the same time. This study was conducted using an interpretivist, qualitative approach to gain a rich in-depth understanding of how employees in the retail environment are going about to ensure the relevance of their skills sets within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Semi – structured interviews formed the data collection method, which enabled the researcher to gain a greater understanding on the research participants views. Thereafter the transcripts were analysed to develop themes around the first - order data. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the skills development theory, Katz’ three skill approach and Mumford’s skills model of leadership. This study concludes that due to the rapid growth and advancements of artificial intelligence as well as various other technologies, businesses have had to consistently evolve and keep up with these advancements. There has been a huge gap in employee skillset and the technology of today. Employees have had to attend various forms of training regarding such technologies. On the other hand, many employees in the retail environment have lost their jobs either because their jobs were replaced by artificial intelligence or because they did not meet the necessary skills sets requirements to remain relevant enough in their jobs.
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    The Potential Role of Artificial Intelligence in Capturing Census Data
    (The IIE, 2020) Mushonga, Warren
    “For too long, African leaders have undermined the growth of Africa. They lost the plot of measurement because they could not count numbers” (Lehohla, 2011). Census plays a critical role in the development of a country. The government needs to use census data for planning purposes for example to provide grant payments and service delivery. Since the world is gearing up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is crucial for Statistics South Africa to enter into a transitioning phase of using artificial intelligence in capturing census data. The focus of this research is that the traditional census methods used by Statistics South Africa to capture census data have resulted in undercounts. This research used an interpretivist, qualitative approach to promote a deeper understanding on the potential role of artificial intelligence in capturing census data. This research used in-depth semi structured interviews as a data collection method, which allowed the researcher to generate the research findings. The most significant finding of this research is that artificial intelligence has the potential to produce accurate census data compared to traditional census methods. Lastly, this research can enlighten readers on the importance of accurate census data and the use of artificial intelligence.