Impact of AI and COVID-19 on manufacturing systems: An Asia Pacific Perspective on the two Competing exigencies

COVID-19 pandemic underscored reliance upon technology as the singular solution to many of humanity's banes and provided impetus to Artificial Intelligence (AI). The unprecedented advent of COVID-19 posited several impediments to public health and welfare, and manufacturing systems in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The primary intent of this study is to investigate the symbiotic influence of AI and COVID-19 on the job market of the APAC region and entailing volatility. This study exames the shift in demand for various technical skills with increased adoption of AI. Review of existing literature scrutinized the research questions, and the analysis revealed a significant increase in new tasks being taken over by AI. The methodology deployed in this study includes a systematic literature review protocol together with stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria to filter articles and data. An interpretivist philosophy, foregrounded in an inductive case-study approach ensemble the analysis and conclusion of the study.