Future Jobs?

There’s been a big buzz lately about software replacing workers in higher paying jobs. Who’s vulnerable? Accountants, budget analysts, loan officers, auditors, tech writers, insurance adjusters and many more. According to one measure these jobs face an eighty five percent chance of being automated. Shipping clerks and delivery drivers are at risk. So are retail workers. Even mathematicians have a forty seven percent chance of being replaced by machines. What about low-end jobs? Probably gone forever.

Bill Gates recently said, “…twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.”

I believe it.

For the last three weeks I’ve been in the first Tackling the Challenges of Big Data class at MIT. It’s an in-depth overview of Big Data and emerging technologies that harness it.

One of the sections covers machine learning and great strides are being made, almost daily. A new age of intelligent automation is on the horizon, and there’s nothing stopping it. So how will this affect future economic policies? Seismic changes, I’m thinking.

It’s indeed a Brave New World we’re entering.