The recent news on the future of work is rather disturbing, with many experts now warning that automation may not quite bring the benefits to workers that we were told it will.
This means, more than ever, we need to take responsibility for our future in our own hands. Don’t trust the government or the private sector to be there for you. If you’re in a low-paying, a menial or low-skill job that can easily be automated, this will affect you even more.
The Solution: Learn how to create your own economy by acquiring new skills and creating a personal brand for yourself. The earlier you start doing this, the more likely it is that you will survive the transition when the robots take over.
I hate to be the prophet of doom, but if you don’t take the steps to adapt in the coming Age of Automation, you may very likely lose your livelihood and ability to provide for yourself and your family. 😞
Will robots and artificial intelligence replace jobs in the future? When the robots take over will there be jobs left for us? To know the answers, read below. And if you have kids, make sure they read this newsletter too.
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According to the New York Times, many of your bosses want machines to replace you as soon as possible even though they’ll never admit it in public. They’re racing to automate their own workforces to stay ahead of the competition, with little regard for the impact on workers.
They crave the fat profit margins automation can deliver, and they see A.I. as a golden ticket to savings, perhaps by letting them whittle departments with thousands of workers down to just a few dozens.
One common argument made by executives is that workers whose jobs are eliminated by automation can be “reskilled” to perform other jobs in an organization. But automation pushes workers to the less productive parts of the economy.
Of the 1.37 million workers who are projected to be fully displaced by automation in the next decade, only one in four can be profitably reskilled by private-sector programs. The rest, presumably, will need to fend for themselves or rely on government assistance.
The choices made by the Davos elite — and the pressure applied on them to act in workers’ interests rather than their own — will determine whether A.I. is used as a tool for increasing productivity or for inflicting pain.
Are robots and AI taking our jobs instead of helping us? It’s a very real possibility, warns University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Anton Korinek. He notes:
“Up until now, machines have replaced our physical strength, but they have allowed us to leverage our intellect and intelligence. AI is really coming for what has always defined us as humans. It’s coming for our last bastion of advantage over the machines. And that changes the game fundamentally.”
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that AI and the fourth industrial revolution will have a more severe impact on women than men because many of the tasks done by women are more routine tasks, easily substituted by technology.
Going forward, 11 per cent of women’s jobs will be affected by technology in the future, whereas that number sits at just nine per cent for men. This shift will happen gradually. But one thing is for sure, the future of work will be different, particularly for women.
There’s no doubt that skills are the currency of the labour market. There is wide agreement that we need a massive push to prepare people for new jobs and skills, but right now, no one is doing enough to prepare people for those future skills.
As one Nobel Prize-winning economist ominously remarked, “Now school does not mean you will learn; learning does not mean you will have the skills for the labour market, and having the skills does not mean you will have a job — it’s a more complex route.”
Five years from now, over one-third of skills (35%) that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed. Some jobs will disappear, others will grow and jobs that don’t even exist today will become commonplace. What is certain is that the future workforce will need to align its skill set to keep pace.
In today’s modern work environment, workers have increased responsibility for their own formal and experiential learning, says the NASA blog. Careers are no longer linear or “owned” by a corporation, and learning needs are increasingly diversified and personalized.
In the future, manufacturers will be less likely to hire blue collar workers and more likely to prefer engineering and technology specialists, who can program, maintain and upgrade the increasingly intelligent machines.
The jobs that will survive are creative types, health care workers, managers, lawyers, accountants and real estate agents who deal personally with clients and take advantage of artificial intelligence to expand their reach and offer more sophisticated information to clients.
Scientists, engineers and mathematicians will be in even more demand, especially those who can navigate the interface between man and machine.
The most important job of the future could well be an old one: educator. Educational services will be the second largest job-generator, after health care, in the coming years.
Not that long ago, being able to work from home was rare – and was seen as a huge perk. These days, it’s far more common. The concept of a job-for-life to which you were thoroughly dedicated no longer really exists.
The way we all work is going to change, says Richard Branson on the Virgin blog. People will eventually take three and even four day weekends and job-sharing may increase.
People will need to be paid the same or even more for working less time, so they can afford more leisure time. That’s going to be a difficult balancing act to get right, but it can be done.
At the WEF in Davos, Allen Blue of LinkedIn shared his insight about the right way to build technology, which is a departure from how it has been built in the past.
This time, instead of being designed almost exclusively by white males, he believes that more women should be recruited into technical roles so that machines can learn more efficiently and give an unbiased performance.
Everything from mobile development to accounting and content writing tasks could now be outsourced to the lowest bidder across the globe. Freelancers needed a space to work and that call was answered by coworking spaces.
64 per cent of India’s workforce is projected to be below 35 years of age by 2020. Therefore, the need for flexible workspaces with top-notch amenities will be at an all-time high.
Offering cost-effectiveness, flexibility, hassle-free maintenance, networking opportunities and a fun place to work, coworking spaces are set to be the way future Indian professionals work.
The new online marketplace “Maharati,” aims to connect businesses with freelancers with digital skills. Additionally, the new UAE 10-year expat visa is designed to attract highly-skilled workers such as technology entrepreneurs, scientists, and specialists, without necessarily being confined to an employer in the country.
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