Jobs Most at Risk for Automation and What to Do About It
We are in the midst of a post-digital age Industrial Revolution fueled by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics. Harvard, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, INSEAD, Kellogg School of Management and other top business schools have recently incorporated artificial intelligence into their MBA programs. According to Forrester’s June 2016 report, by 2025 automation will replace 16% of US jobs with an offset of 9% new jobs created in areas such as curation of content, data science, and management of robots and automation.
The jobs most vulnerable to automation is not determined by whether it is white-collar or blue-collar, but rather whether it is routine according to the 2013 study from the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne.
According to NPR, within 20 years, tellers, telemarketers, procurement clerks, legal secretaries, bookkeepers, postal service clerks, bill and account collectors, correspondence clerks, medical secretaries and mail carriers have the greatest odds of being automated. The jobs least likely to be automated are in social work.
The rise of autonomous vehicles could potentially displace professional truck drivers and commercial drivers for services such as Uber, taxis and package delivery.
If you are in a routine job at high-risk of being automated within the decade, you have three options, lead the change, pivot or do nothing. If your career strategy is to lead the change or pivot, now is the optimal time to start learning new skills. There are thousands of courses in many fields available online from top universities worldwide, edX, Coursera and many more institutions. Proactively seek out mentors and explore new fields of employment or entrepreneurship in areas of projected job growth. As with any transformation, there will be a transition period where humans will work alongside robots. If your strategy is to do nothing and play the odds, strive to be the very best at what you do.
Copyright © 2017 Cami Rosso All rights reserved.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on January 26, 2017.
