Future of Jobs – In the age of Man Vs. Machine
Contributed By - Yogs Jayaprakasam
In February, 2018 article I talked about my reflections from Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella’s book, “Hit Refresh.” In particular as Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more real, what will the world of The Man Vs. Machine will look like? And the 4-step framework to stay relevant in the world of AI that included (a) Empathy: teach the machine to perceive the human emotions and feelings, (b) Education: learn and raise awareness of AI to others, (c) Creativity: how human creativity should still be front and center in taking advantage of these technology advancement in solving human challenges at scale, and (d) how Judgment and Accountability should still stay with human for every action taken by the AI machines.
As the conversation around AI machines taking over our current jobs heat-up, there are also studies around what the future of jobs will look like for human beings. If the machines automate most jobs, don’t we need optimism for ourselves and our children that there are still going to jobs for all of us that will ensure our good life and well-being?
Futurist Speaker, Thomas Frey, has made predictions on the potential future industries, and ~160+ future jobs that will come into existence by 2030. He talks about the jobs that both do not exist today and that might employ large number of people. His list offers 14 newly required skills (i.e., Transitionists, Maximizers, Feedback Loopers, etc.), and also offers the potential job description.
These roles include “Data Hostage Specialist,” “Career Transitionists,” “Augmented Reality Journey Builder,” etc. Most of these jobs are projected based on the current technology trends and the associated disruptions that are already taking place in the market place. Most of these jobs are based on the following key
themes:
1. Coaching: As I referred from “Hit Refresh” massive amount of learning and coaching is needed about AI, ML, AR/VR technologies. Most jobs are going to be around coaching such advanced solutions and bringing the right value for the respective industry.
2. Caring: Health and Wellbeing will become the key thing for the mankind, as the health systems are struggling to cope up with the social, economic and technology trends.
3. Connecting: The future will be connecting the online and offline, physical and virtual, and man and machine.
This future of job trends cannot be ignored, but must be embraced to prepare and capitalize on the growth opportunities that would come with it. Raising our awareness level will deeply increase our ability to capitalize on these new jobs for our children and ourselves. One such disruption that deeply touched at a very emotional level is the recent announcement of the legendary Toys “R” Us store closing, and the immediate news about its founder “Charles Lazarus” passing.
Toys “R” Us brings so many beautiful memories of shopping many things for my first baby’s arrival, birthday gifts, walking around their aisle with my kids and my kids excitements and tears of getting and not getting all they wanted to buy from there. It was also a deep wake-up call for me that we all very aggressively adapted to the technology disruption to go online and buy everything that leads to closing of so many shops that helped create so many memories in our lives.
Ignoring these trends is no longer a viable option for our future generation or us. I’m not optimistic that all these jobs are going to become real in the future. What is real is that the future of jobs will be very different. Most of them may entirely be different than what the most advanced schools are teaching today. We all have responsibility to help shape the future of jobs for our children’s sake.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article are solely mine and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer.