Sofas and couches in my household have short life spans. The credit goes to my son, who pressure tests them extensively. So we just bought another sectional to replace our old and broken one. Over the years, there is a trend that I have observed. Our initial couches and sofas would either be delivered assembled for a hefty delivery fee or delivered in pieces that were complex to assemble. It is so complex in some instances that Amazon also sells installation services.

Gradually, I have seen the complexity of the assembly of these couches decrease. I think there are two key reasons. Enhanced product design as well as innovations in packaging. We all know how packaging innovation in the mattress world allows manufacturers to ship you large mattresses in compact packages. These mattresses come vacuum packed and slowly inflate over hours to their full size and thickness. This packaging aspect needs to be incorporated in the product design phase as well, though.

Something similar occurs in the world of heavy furniture like sectionals and sofas. While IKEA perfected this for a specific type of furniture decades ago, it has not ventured into the “lazy boy” type of couches and sectionals. Modularly designed, with easy connectivity solutions, seems to be the trend. All this is aided by packaging innovations that allow manufacturers to ship these modules into manageable packages.

From an installation perspective, what used to take hours (for a layman like me) can be done in less than 60 minutes. Leveraging AI for product design and packaging optimization can help manufacturers explore unlimited possibilities now. So, I see the complexity level of installations of these couches and sectionals decreasing consistently in the future. But there is obviously an impact on those who make a living by installing furniture.

You may shrug this example off as a trivial impact. But the gist of this musing is not the specific number of installation jobs at risk. The crux is that AI and technology advances are not always about eliminating human jobs that are directly impacted. The cumulative effect of associated jobs means that the real risk of loss of job opportunities can be staggering. And that is not very far on the horizon.