The future of work is about humans
One day, robots will outperform humans, and take over millions of jobs. At least, that has been the oft-repeated predictions we constantly hear.
But the truth is a lot complex.
As artificial intelligence gains in popularity, more and more executives have started — or at least considered — adopting the technology into their business models.
But the fear of an artificial intelligence takeover may be misplaced. Incorporating artificial intelligence into a business can replace, augment, transform, and create new activities within a company that, in turn, could generate new job opportunities.
At the same time, those organisations could use that same technology to scale up training of current employees to fill those roles. Teaching artificial intelligence-appropriate skills to their existing workforces is one way that businesses could offset that looming dearth of talent.
Therefore, the future of work is still humans!
There’s a lot of talk and written articles about the future of work. Unfortunately, it has come to a point whereby the term, “future of work”, has been somewhat overused. It is also misused for various purposes.
Let’s unpack what “the future of work” means.
Let us understand how we can respond to its ever-changing nature.
So, what exactly is “the future of work”? What does “the future of work” mean?
What is the future of work?
The future of work could include one or all of the following:
(1) Changing nature of work and the automation that are transforming jobs (not totally replacing them).
(2) Systems, tools, and processes required by workers, freelancers, etc. to increase human productivity, capability, and effectiveness.
(3) Humans who have to cope physically, emotionally, and mentally within their circumstances, in workplaces, and at home, in the future. Some people may require reskilling with future 0r employable skills. Others may require repositioning to be job-ready and future-ready.
Automation and the changing nature of work
The era we are now living in is filled with unprecedented opportunity. It includes challenges in the shape of automation of roles that are traditionally carried out by humans; cars that drive themselves, machines that read x-rays, and algorithms that respond to customer-service inquiries.
We know that robots are taking over thousands of routine tasks and will eliminate many low-skill jobs in advanced economies and developing countries.
At the same time, technology is creating opportunities, paving the way for new and altered jobs, increasing productivity, and improving the delivery of services.
There’s no shortage of media hype around robots and machines taking over the jobs of humans. The doom-and-gloom predictions of massive job losses are constantly being made.
Interestingly, there’s no unified consensus as to the potential impact on jobs, whether positive or negative. When different assumptions are used, different predictions will arise. The conclusions will also differ.
Like past centuries, automation and industrialisation have transformed many jobs. Manual jobs are constantly being replaced with higher-skilled jobs. We need to up-skill ourselves in order to perform these higher-skilled jobs.
Humans will just keep adapting to these constant changes.
There will always be jobs for humans to perform. The idea that robots will do all the work and replace all workers while humans relax by the pool will never happen. Someone needs to create and maintain these robots! Someone needs to write the codes that run these robots.
The nature of jobs will certainly change to highly skilled jobs, slowly replacing manual labour.
The exponential growth of productivity tools
There is no shortage of systems and tools developed to make life easier for everyone. There are so many applications and software being created daily that we have become so technology-dependent. There are apps for every conceivable task.
Just take a look at the preoccupation of our kids with mobile devices, games, and apps. The dependency on technology has lead to unintended consequences – increasing obesity and lifestyle-related diseases. People are just staying indoors more, living unhealthy lifestyles.
Technology may also reduce the working hours of humans as we become productive doing more with less.
Perhaps a 4-hour workweek is possible with the increasing use of technology!
For now, I am going to explore item 3 on the list of how the following generations will cope with the future of work:
(1) Baby Boomers – Born between 1946 and 1964.
(2) Generation X – Born between 1965 and 1980.
(3) Millennials – Born between 1981 and 1996.
Each of these three generations will respond differently to the future of work, which we will explore now.