Consistent advances in technology within the past two decades have swiftly developed robotics and artificial intelligence that may or may not pose a new threat to future employees.
In a study published by the Boston Consulting Group, up to 25 percent of existing jobs will be replaced by some sort of automation by 2025. A separate Oxford University study was less optimistic, reporting that up to 35 percent of current jobs could be impacted within the same timeframe.
According to Andrew Mcafee, co-founder of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, cyber-skeptics agree with this assessment and they argue that robots and technological innovation, along with the internet, will simply take away jobs from lower skilled and less educated individuals, while digital optimists argue that it will help them maximize productivity in the workplace.
“Technology is only going to make working easier,” junior engineering major Gunjiv Sethi said. “If someone can improve their work through use of automated tech then it’d be good for the company and the person gaining skills and experience.”
Instead of simply taking jobs altogether, digital optimists believe that people will be able to utilize the technology to further develop the quality of their product or service. Rather than wasting effort on time-consuming tasks, digital optimists feel that technology would save time and resources, allowing people to do useful work.
“Labor intensive industries, such as taxi drivers, production lines, restaurant waiters, supermarket cashiers and bank tellers would probably be the most adversely affected,” said Henry Yeh, professor of electrical engineering at CSULB. “However, it is not 100 percent replaceable. In many cases, there still requires a ‘real’ supervisor to control these ‘robots’ and satisfy customer’s needs due to a variety of reasons.”
According to a study by Oxford University, the most vulnerable jobs would be that of employees who consistently do simple and repetitive tasks like warehouse employees who sort, weigh and quality check goods.
Among the top 10 jobs at stake to be replaced through automation are telemarketers, cleaning services, manufacturers, clerks and secretaries.
Although many experts acknowledge that jobs will be automated in certain industries, they also mention the fact that this is nothing new.
In a Pew Research Center survey, experts agreed that as technology improves, so does the ability to efficiently make a product or offer a service, therefore resulting in new innovation and the creation of jobs that do not even exist yet.
“Jobs will always be available,” Sethi said. “The only problem is whether or not people want to do them and if they actually pay enough for someone to live a sustainable life.”