The short answer is yes it is. If we have an OCR system for scanning bank statements which allows an accounts clerk to be four times as productive say, then apparently three out of four accounts clerks will no longer be needed. We can make a number of observations on this :

Should we carry on working in pounds, shillings and pence? Should we come to work on horseback? Should we use candles or gas lighting? This author still owns an abacus, a slide rule and a set of log tables, but no longer uses them.

Politicians use printers to produce their manifestos. Just think about all the monks they have put out of work.

Everybody wants a continually-improving standard of living, and raising the productivity of labour is an essential part of this. In the short term this means shakeout in some industries, but in the long term everybody benefits.

If everybody is getting auto-enrolled pensions, then they need to be more productive to compensate their employer for the extra cost and bother. There’s no free lunch here. OCR can help.

It is human nature to resist change, even in accountancy where things tend to keep changing all the time. OCR is just another change.

This author would have recommended gradual change, which was always possible, but other people stuck their heads in the sand and resisted all change. Revolution it’s going to be.