A quick briefing in five—
or a fifty-minute deeper dive.
In this edition:
Fear/fear not
The robots are coming for our jobs—
that’s the widely held view. But the likely outcome is a bit more nuanced.
In advanced and emerging economies alike, worries about job automation
Pew Research Center
% of respondents
0
20
40
60
80
100
Likelihood that in the next 50 years robots and computers
will do much of the work currently done by humans
There’s widespread belief around the world that robots will take the jobs of humans.
Jobs lost!
Definitely
Probably
Greece
Japan
Canada
Argentina
Poland
Brazil
South Africa
Italy
Hungary
United States
The future of jobs report 2018
World Economic Forum – PDF
But a new report estimates that robots in the workplace could create nearly double the jobs they destroy.
Jobs gained!
133 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.”
“
The World Economic Forum generated a range of estimates for job creation in the period up to 2022. One of them indicates:
Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet)
Article – McKinsey Quarterly
Managing
others
Applying
expertise
Stakeholder
interactions
Unpredictable
physical work
Data
collection
Data
processing
Predictable
physical work
Less
susceptible
Highly
susceptible
Least
susceptible
% of time spent on activities susceptible to being automated
A more helpful view separates jobs from the tasks they’re made up of—creating a more useful way to frame the issue for employees and stakeholders.
Activities, not
occupations
A CEO action plan for workplace automation
Article – McKinsey Quarterly
Leaders should:
Automation agenda
Focusing on activities rather than occupations is a good starting point for leaders grappling with automation and its implications for the workplace.
Scan today’s business system for automation opportunities
Ask what a disruptive player could do to your business by leveraging automation
Redesign processes to exploit the potential of future task automation
Recruit automation-savvy talent, and redeploy people to new roles and activities
Participate in the broader dialogue on the future
of work
Ask
Redesign
Recruit
Participate
Scan
A CEO action plan for workplace automation
Article – McKinsey Quarterly
Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet)
Article – McKinsey Quarterly
The future of jobs report 2018
In advanced and emerging economies alike, worries about job automation
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133 million new roles may emerge that
are more adapted to the new division
of labor between humans, machines,
and algorithms.”
World Economic Forum – PDF
Pew Research Center