The capabilities of robots are increasing rapidly, leading some analysts to worry that they will take away human jobs.
But fear not, says
John Tamny, political economy editor at Forbes.
"The labor saved by such a technological advance will gift us with an investment boom that will truly transform our lives and work for the better," he writes. "The future can't come soon enough. Robots will be the biggest job creators in history."
And how is that?
"Aggressive automation will free us up to do new work by virtue of it erasing toil that was once essential," Tamny says. Remember that long ago here in the United States, everyone had no choice but to do agricultural work.
"With their evolution as labor inputs, robots bring the promise of new forms of work that will have us marveling at labor we wasted in the past," Tamny explains.
Also on the technology front, investors are increasingly using automated services to allocate and handle their money. These services are known as "robo-advisers." You fill out an online questionnaire, and the service invests your money based on your investment goals, risk tolerance, age and income.
Four of the biggest such services manage less than $10 billion combined, Michael Kitces, director of research at wealth-management firm Pinnacle Advisory Group, tells
The Wall Street Journal.
That's a small percentage of the $17 trillion market for wealth advisers, as calculated by consulting firm Aite Group. So the opportunity is rife for robo-advisers.
"It's an enormous market," Brian Ascher, partner at venture-capital firm Venrock, told The Journal. While robo-advisers have to spend plenty of money to create their services, over time they "can take just a small part of the market and generate a lot of revenue," he notes.
Sachin Rekhi of Menlo Park, Calif., is a believer. He was courted by major wealth managers after selling his software company. But he went the robo-adviser route.
"I wasn't getting access to anything special from the traditional wealth advisers, and they were going to invest my money the same way," he tells
The Journal.