Enjoying the convenience of automation has its price. As more jobs are automated, there will be jobs that will eventually disappear. This happened with the once popular encyclopedias of the past.
There are no encyclopedia salesmen anymore since these books were eventually displaced by their digital offspring - the disc encyclopedias and now the online search services we now know as Google, Yahoo, and others.
According to Forrester Research, by 2025, about 22.7 million jobs will be displaced by automation.
Stephen Hawking, the eminent physicists said AI "could spell the end of the human race." Tesla CEO Elon Musk said AI is "our biggest existential threat."
A report also mentioned that in 2015, a British supermarket chain is creating humanoid robots that could be capable enough to understand and assist humans in real time.
The statement of Craig LeClair, an analyst at Forrester Research regarding the deployment of AI in businesses today would serve as a palliative medicine. He said that today's companies are taking it slow.
But business owners are faced with two challenges - reducing operation costs, and the emergence of new companies using advanced technologies. The easy answer to both issues is robotics or AI.
Thus, more and more jobs will be displaced by robots which can do exactly what humans can and possibly more.
So if your job is in any of the following sectors, your tenure is somewhat risky to say the least.
- Production jobs, such as production workers, automotive mechanics and related jobs
- Office and administration occupations such as office managers, accountants, bookkeepers and related jobs
- Retail staff such as sales assistants in retail outlets, cashiers, and related jobs
- Restaurant staff such as waiters and waitresses, food preparation personnel, dishwashers and related jobs
- Some sales related jobs such as real estate brokers and store salesmen
Although automation will affect those in the low-wage and low-skills job at the start, eventually as the AI technology advances, even those jobs that require college education such as accounting, finance and data analysis, will be affected.
