Very interesting article, and a point-of-view I'd never really considered. I had always assumed the "intelligence" that was being added by software was an addit

Very interesting article, and a point-of-view I'd never really considered. I had always assumed the "intelligence" that was being added by software was an addition to the existing business processes. I hadn't thought that some of it was originating from and replacing employees. However, much as the ideas make intuitive sense, I'm having a hard time thinking of concrete examples. How does using Square take away from what Starbucks employees could've brought to the job? Ironically, the only example I can think of is IT work, both helpdesk and sys-admin. Lots of software seems to be replacing the craft of troubleshooting. Good if you have a bad IT dept.; bad if you have a good one. And finally, I don't think the overlap is complete. A company may automate a lot of things, but there are other things, or even the automation itself where employees can still give valuable input. It may be like the manufacturing in the end: companies come back around to the other intangible values once they see the true cost of only optimizing for the bottom line. Sad that it always takes a whole cycle of outsourcing, downsizing, losing customers, and crappy products/service before the industry comes around and rethinks the strategy.