I believe that money has been spent in the past on traditional training programs, but that is really changing dramatically because of the disruptive change with respect to technology, and specifically artificial intelligence. It's here and it's coming, and the speed of change is just immense.
Traditional training mechanisms aren't really the solution going forward. Government really needs to be aware of what needs to change. How do we equip the population, specifically those who are going to be affected by change, especially the unskilled labour force? How do we equip them to effectively do different jobs?
When we speak about robotics specifically, or bots in this case, there are going to be new roles at play, trainers and influencers who essentially teach machines how to build empathy and emotional intelligence and be aware of certain dynamics with respect to ensuring there is no bias when machines are essentially deciding on someone's credit rating, whether they get a loan, and so on.
These robotics, if we want to call them that, need to have individuals who are better skilled to be able to do those jobs, so I think we need to spend. I believe that government needs to really push the boundaries and ensure that we equip tomorrow's population with better tools and skills to be able to do those jobs. Studies have shown that if we don't, the loss in productivity for Canada could be anywhere from $6 billion to $18 billion annually if we really don't get moving quickly with respect to the disruptive change that is coming. That is going to be a toll on the Canadian economy if we're not aware of that.