21 jobs of the Future

The robots will eat your job. We won't have to work anymore. We will be pets. We will be gods. Most likely, we will be working 9-5, complain about politics and the weather, but it looks like we'll serve each other just a little more.

Let's dive in - into what could be, with a little imagination.

Probably not much of a career here.

The optimist: A whole world of jobs will open

Every technology revolution in the past created more, better jobs than it eliminated. You just can't imagine what they are.
New, exciting industries are opening up with jobs that we have never heard about
Progress means growth, which means more jobs.
Lots of work is awful and needs to change anyway, people will love it.

The pessimist: All your jobs are belong to us

Automation has been removing jobs for years
An uber-like "gig" economy can't replace jobs that will be lost, nor the social functions of employment
The new jobs will be highly specialized and out of reach for displaced workers
Very few jobs will be created - how can you compete with AI?

A first step of reconciling these views might be imagining what new jobs actually will be created. It turns out, there are some clever people who have done so - take a look at this (increasingly futuristic) list of what the future might hold.

This report by Cognizant is 12 months old (there's also a follow-up), but not everybody may have heard of it. I think it's worth highlighting - a positive outlook is always welcome, and only worrying about the future won't get it into the shape we'd like.

21 Jobs of the Future

By increasing order of fantastic-ness

Data detective - investigates fraud, crime with data analytics support
Bring-your-own-device facilitator - makes employee devices work in corporate environment, change management to convince employees to use corporate choices of apps
Ethical sourcing - procure, produce and invest ethically
AI business development - sell and implement AI software
Edge computing specialist - build cloud infrastructure near to the customer
Walker/talker - conversation therapy with senior citizens, enhanced by AI cues
Fitness commitment counselor - monitor fitness trackers, sensors, motivate. Perhaps paid for by insurers?
Financial wellness coach - coach people to reach financial goals
Memory curator - stimulate by virtually recreating past experiences
AI-enabled healthcare technician - support remote healthcare, visits patients
Cyber City Analyst - keep smart cities running, essential services support
Genomic portfolio director - expand life sciences portfolios
Man-machine teaming manager - create hybrid teams, next step in RPA
Digital tailor - personalize clothing, consult, manufacture on demand
Chief trust officer - traditional and crypto currency trading
Quantum machine learning analyst - train AI using next-generation computers
Virtual Store Sherpa - accompany online shoppers
Personal data broker - help people sell (their) data to companies
Augmented Reality Journey builder - build layers over the real world (games, marketing!)
Highway controller - manage fleets of autonomous vehicles, drones
Genetic diversity officer - avoid discriminating for/against enhanced humans

These jobs do not list jobs that already exist and already sound pretty futuristic - like in the fields of IT, engineering or mathematics. Here is what the report says (a bit in the optimists' camp).

Why will work increase?

Work has always changed. There has always been new work, usually more.
Machines need man to operate them
Don't underestimate ingenuity, progress isn't a simple extrapolation
Technology will permeate all jobs and raising demand for them
Technology solves problems, but creates new ones.

I will add that people want to deal with people - just remember the last time you wanted a human to help you out on a hotline, or how annoyed you would be if your friend started screening your calls using Google Duplex. People pay a premium people-made lattes and for other people's time and skills.

What do projections say?

In the US, there are apparently too few teachers, entertainers and people employed in sports or media. 12.5% work in healthcare, 8.3% have something to do with food, 10.2% work in sales, 2.3% cashiers. Although it seems to us that everybody works in an office, it's only about one in seven people (15.1%).

According to the Cognizant report, 19M jobs will be eliminated, 21M jobs will be created in the United States. And exactly what those 21 million jobs might look like, you'll find in the summary on the left or in the full report - it's well worth reading!

You may not imagine becoming a Highway traffic controller in a smart city - but you're most likely working in an office, so some variation of Chief trust officer might be in your future. I actually know data detectives, although they work under (no less exotic) titles like "e-discovery". Everything security is on the rise, so yes, those could become reality very soon. Thank you for reading!

#ai #strategyPublished 2019-01-15 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2019-05-30 by Holger Matthies.Written listening to Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire.

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