Technology is actually the strongest force which is going to impact the job demand in the current age of Robots

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, a lot of processes are getting automated. The efficient usage of AI, Robotics and Machine Learning by the companies have changed the skills we humans need to display to stay competitive with the current technology. How do we up-skill ourselves? What are the exact skills needed to stay relevant in the Industry?  

Every time and then, such kind of discussions have surfaced whenever we have observed a huge Industrial shift. It happened first time during Industrial Revolution 1.0 in the 18th century, but we can’t stop exploring the nuances of Technology as it helps us simplify a lot of things and help us utilize the full potential of our thinking hats. We live in an era which is marred by the Confluence of robots and digital growth. Technology is actually the strongest force which is going to impact the job demand in the current age of Robots. 

One thing the humans have always been sure about is: “Change is the only constant”

The volatility of workforce demand can be best investigated by human resource personnel. We should be looking at the latest employment skills and human capital trends across countries in every sector. Automation and Algorithms are definitely here to stay. There was a time when Harvard economists Richard Murnane and Frank Levy wrote a research paper explaining the non-achievability of computers vis-a-vis driving Cars. Today driver-less cars and bullet trains are a stark reality. Wait for a few years and even the chefs and the waiters would disappear. 

In fact, it’s already happening; chef Watson powered by Watson Technology is able to create original recipes from inception using his knowledge of flavour pairings and taste chemistry. Robots can also be used for meal preparations at an insanely high speed which human chefs can never fathom. Also, when our food can be served on the table via drones, who needs waiters? Then, there are telemarketers who have already been replaced by chatbots being used by companies like Amazon, Microsoft which are a much smarter first point of contact because they do not read from a fixed script. Thus, they provide a much smarter and personalized User Experience. With Chatbots you don't need to wait for long also and they actually solve your problems quickly and efficiently. 

However, that being said; technology is also expected to consolidate, perpetuate and create myriad jobs. It will consolidate Traditional jobs such as those of registered nurses or caregivers, perpetuate jobs such as application developers, digital marketers, social media experts, influencers and create jobs such as drone operators, big-data analysts, cloud computing and machine learning experts. According to world economic report, 71 percent of total task hours across 12 Industries covered in the report were done by humans in 2018. By 2022, 42 percent of total task hours across those same industries will be covered by machines. 

In conclusion, certainly there will be jobs which will become redundant due to automation and we will witness a new division of labour. But there will also be a surge in jobs due to adaptation of new technology, the rising middle class in emerging economies and shift in demographic dividend across the world. It will provide us with various new tools to experiment, learn and find plausible solutions to difficult problems and jobs in Artificial Intelligence, Nano - Technology, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and maybe we will get to witness a fusion of “Man & Machine” someday. 

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