Outsourcing Work to the Customer

Here is an interesting take on outsourcing...

Many people complain about companies outsourcing work to low-wage economies: but how many notice that firms are increasingly outsourcing work to their own customers?

In theory, companies can save money by replacing human workers with automated self-service systems, while customers gain more choice and control and get quicker service.

There is even talk of self-service doing for the service sector what mass production did for manufacturing, by enabling the delivery of services cheaply and on a massive scale. Surely the expansion of self-service into more and more areas is to be welcomed?

More here.