These are the jobs that will survive robot invasion

Cashiers, taxi drivers, tax preparers — the list of professions predicted to be automated out of existence in the near future is enormous. A recent study by McKinsey Global Institute suggests that by 2030, up to 54 million jobs are likely to be taken over by robots in the US alone. However impressive (and terrifying for some) this figure might look like, there’s also good news: certain occupations will not be affected by automation for the time being. These jobs can be divided into three groups:

Creative jobs

Humans will always be the best when it comes to creativity. No matter how many songs AI can write, it will hardly ever replace human songwriters. The same is true for any form of self-expression, be it writing, art, design or filmmaking. We are talking about not only creatives per se, but any type of profession involving creativity and human ingenuity — scientists, entrepreneurs, hairdressers and whatnot.

Emotional intelligence jobs

Guess what: artificial intelligence is emotionally dumb. Though certain futurists may think otherwise, AI is incapable of empathy, and there’s little chance it will ever be. Teachers, caretakers, healthcare and social workers — basically any profession with emphasis on emotional intelligence and human interaction will be safe from automation. Let’s leave that “robonanny taking care of grandpa” stuff to filmmakers: robots will never understand human emotions better than humans do.

STEM jobs

Finally, there are also jobs requiring STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. People belonging to these professions are not expected to be harmed by automation at all — indeed, they will thrive on it: someone has to build and maintain all those robots that will take over human jobs. One man’s loss is another man’s gain and all. Until we reach that utopian point in time where robots will be fully self-reliant, engineers can sleep well.

Even if it so happens that your job is not included in this list, there’s no need to get paranoid: the job market is moving to the gig economy model and all freelancers have one quality in common — they are flexible. Those who can survive a dead season are able to handle a nuclear war, let alone some androids.