Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Jobs, data and automation


I've warned repeatedly that the new wave of automation is threatening many traditional jobs.  Over the past year I've published several updates:


The pace of developments is accelerating.  Over the past week or two I've found the following articles that directly address one or more aspects of the issue:


All of those links are worth following.  There's far more happening under the surface of 'business as usual' than most people realize.  It's going to mean that many jobs and professions that today we take for granted simply will not exist in a few years time.  There may be new professions and jobs that arise to replace them, but in more and more cases it appears that artificial intelligence, robotics and data analysis will replace many things done by people today.  Those doing them now will find there are no jobs left for them.

As I've said before, if you work in one of the fields that may be affected by such developments, you need to start looking into retraining and upgrading your skills right now.  You don't want to be part of the 'lemming rush' when the rest of the workforce wakes up to what's going on and everyone tries to change jobs and/or career paths simultaneously.  In this case, the early bird is most definitely going to get the worm - and there probably won't be many worms left for anyone else . . .

Peter

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

PS Someone has to program the robots and maintain them.