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They've not even installed the system yet: "Fukoku Mutual has already begun staff reductions in preparation for the system's installation." ... "The insurance

• onion2k 10y ago
  As I understand it, "installation" in terms of enterprise software is when you actually buy the system and get it online. There are rounds of development, demonstrations, and testing for months or even years prior to that. Like you say though, the whole thing is light on details, so we can't really know what's happening in this specific case. I still believe this is the beginning of the destruction of a lot of medium-skill, data processing jobs though, or at least the de-skilling of them so low waged workers can do jobs that professionals do now.
  • new299 10y ago
    The article really makes it look like they've not used it yet. It then goes on to discuss 3 other sites that have installed Watson, and have made no major staff cuts. Even if there has been testing. I find it unlikely that you'd make staff cuts without running the system in production on parallel for some time... That's just my guess though, but seems like there's a high probability they're putting positive spin on some staff cuts.