Future of Jobs - 2018 report from World Economic Forum

Had a look through the World Economic Forum's viewpoint on the future of work over the weekend. There was a brief summary / overview on the NZ Herald last month titled - Machines to do most work in 2025.

Overall, despite the title of the NZ Herald article, a more optimistic report compared to the last one a couple of years ago.

The four drivers of change are ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet; artificial intelligence; widespread adoption of big data analytics; and cloud technology.

Accelerators of change due to ability to extend on technology as more is learnt. Trends in robotisation including increased use of robots  including stationary, non-humanoid land, fully automated aerial drones etc. and improved AI and learning algorithms.

There are rapidly changing patterns of the geography of production, distribution and value chains.

This leads on to changing employment types – with over 50% of companies expecting automation to lead to reduction in workforce by 2022. 38% expected to extend though.

There will be a new human-machine frontier with existing tasks. The ratio of human to machine tasks in jobs will see the machine proportion rise. Predicts 58% of tasks will be performed by humans and 42% by humans but this proportion will be dependent on job types.

Some work tasks which have always been seen to be human strengths, including communicating and interacting, coordinating, developing, managing and advising, and reasoning and decision making, will begin to be automated.

There will be emerging ‘in-demand’ roles – usual ones like data analysts, scientists, software developers etc. and the ‘service’, human relationship type occupations. New roles revolve around AI, automation, robotics, human-machine interaction designers etc. This will lead to growing skills instability with the accompanying need for re-skilling and sound strategies to address skill gaps.

This morning, today online article brings another dimension (an Asian perspective) on things. The article records an interview with Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, and has excerpts from his book - published this year - AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order. In short, the book brings another dimension into how to think about the future of work and what society and government's role are in meeting the coming challenges. Will summarise this book once I have read it.