Automation Recessions and pandemics accelerate automation. Yet warnings of a jobless future are overblown Special report T HE COFFEESHOP is an engine of social mobility. Barista jobs require soft skills and little experience, making them a first port of call for young people and immigrants looking for work. So it may be worrying that robotic baristas are spreading. RC Coffee, which bills itself “Canada’s first robotic café”, opened in Toronto last summer. “[T]he barista-to-customer interaction is somewhat risky despite people’s best efforts to maintain a safe environment,” the firm says. When this correspondent visited in January, a gaggle of people stood by, trying to make it work.