With enhancements in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy via AI, job creation is gearing up to be the focus of attention in the near future. At least, initially, the signs show that skepticism about people losing their jobs thanks to robots may not be backed by critical thought at all.
According to a new “The Future of Jobs 2018” report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), enhancements such as robotics, machine learning, and AI will take over 75 million jobs by 2022. That’s not too bad, as they’ll also lead to the creation of 133 million new jobs as well.
The newly created jobs will mostly be ones where human traits are required most such as data analysis and tasks that require behavioral skills. Jobs replaced would be ones which are more repetitive with room for enhanced efficiency.
It won’t be as simple as X or Y number of jobs going away in the future with some types of jobs more affected than others. There may also be concerns as to how reliable forecasts regarding job creations are.
As the BBC reports, PwC reckons the rate of job creation and replacement will be equal in the future. Furthermore, almost half the jobs in the US and 35% in the UK are at “high risk” of being replaced by machines in the future, according to an Oxford University study.
This shows that the consensus is far from consistent at this point, and may be subject to changes. The WEF report is one of the few which stand out with their positive outlook.
