Matthew C Klein, Columnist

A Computer Might Come After Your Job Next

The automated teller machine wiped out jobs in banking. IBM's Watson might soon do the same for retailers.

November 26, 2013 at 8:50 PM UTC

Matthew C. Klein writes for Bloomberg View about the economy and financial markets. He previously wrote for the Economist magazine and its economics blog, Free Exchange. Before that, Klein was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he spent more than two years studying the history of the Federal Reserve and the intellectual history of monetary economics for an upcoming book by Sebastian Mallaby. He also worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he studied the economies of Central and Eastern Europe and advised institutional investors on asset-liability management. Klein has a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University. Originally from Chicago, he lives in New York.

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First it won at "Jeopardy." Now it might threaten millions of low-wage jobs. At least, that seems to be the implication of a Bloomberg Newsarticleon International Business Machines Corp.'s Watsonsupercomputer.

Developers are now figuring out how to use Watson's processing power to replicate the experience of working with an "experienced in-store salesperson" when shopping for clothes. The software would combine databases provided by retailers with customer preferences for style and fit to help people find what they're looking for.