Introduction

• It often feels that not a day goes by without reading about another scary prediction that robots, artificial intelligence (AI) and other types of intelligent technology are going to rise up in the next few years, taking over our jobs, then our minds and reducing humanity to nothing more than a pet or play thing of super intelligent technology. Whilst this a somewhat tongue in cheek opening line, the headlines and articles – from highly credible sources – aren’t too far away from this:
  • In 2017, PWC – the professional services company – published research predicting that 30% of jobs in Britain are potentially under threat from advances in AI, which could lead to more than 10 million workers being replaced by robots within 15 years (PWC, 2017)
  • Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s chief economist, has publicly stated that automation poses a risk to almost half those employed in the UK and that a “third machine age” would hollow out the labour market, widening the gap between rich and poor. (November 2015)
  • 47% of jobs could be automated in the next 15 years (Wakefield Research, May 2015)
• Whilst on initial reading these figures are indeed alarming, a potential risk, and with some industries will be disproportionality impacted, I am mostly optimistic about the future, and the ability of humans to adapt to the rise of intelligent technology to work alongside and not compete with it. Humans are notoriously bad at understanding how our culture and lifestyle will change even in a short period, simply watch any sci-fi film from the 1980’s or 1990’s which predicted what the world would look like today. One stat I love that makes me realise humans will be able to adapt is that ‘65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist’ (McLeod, Scott and Karl Fisch, “Shift Happens”).
• However, my optimism only exists for those individuals who start taking pro-active measures today to ensure the skillset they have, and want to continue to foster, is complimentary to the skillsets that are provided by intelligent technology, be that AI, robotics or something else.
• Humans have a core set of skills that are incredibly difficult for computers to become good at. How do you programme a computer to be creative, good at problem solving, caring for other people’s emotions and building strong relationships? If you can invest in these skills, you can not only future-proof your career but become very good at it.
• That is the overall aim of this piece, and I aim to achieve it by covering the following:
  • Highlight that everyone is potentially at risk, regardless of your career type
  • Explain why we need to focus on what makes us human, not trying to compete with intelligent technology
  • Explain why skill versatility, something not actively encouraged for 100+ years, is crucial in this 4th industrial revolution
  • Outline the key skills you should foster to future-proof your career
  • Share my two biggest concerns and reservations, the things that’ll need to be addressed to ensure the age of intelligent technology is great for humanity, not just a few fortunate humans
• Take action today, be proactive and keep an eye on this technology and I am confident you’ll be able to thrive not whither during and after the rise of intelligent technology.

Everyone is at risk

• As I highlighted in the introduction on the whole I am optimistic about the future of work with the rise of robotics and AI. However, that definitely doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. Some careers around today will definitely be gone tomorrow, there is no getting away from that, perhaps the most talked about example is truck drivers. Let’s start with the less optimistic but fundamentally important stuff.
• A study by Oxford academics Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne claims that computerisation puts nearly half of jobs – in the USA – into the high-risk category, which means they could be redundant within 10- to 20 years, together with two-thirds of those in India and three-quarters in China.
• However, it isn’t just truck drivers and other types of ‘routine’ jobs that are threatened here. Richard & Daniel Susskind in their book ‘The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts’ highlight that all the so-called ‘safe’ professions – such as accountants, lawyers and doctors – are also at significant risk.
• Therefore, no matter what your profession is you can’t be too comfortable, more and more of today’s jobs will be taken over by intelligent technology in the next 10 –20 years, and if you don’t proactively adapt now you could be one of the targets.

Focus on Being Human

• The good news is there are some jobs that many believe computers, robots and AI will never be able to do as well as humans. Writing or journalism is an excellent, and conceptually easy to understand, example of this. To know what topics readers might find interesting, then write stories on these, is a very human skill, it requires strong situational awareness, interpersonal communication, compassion and empathy. Trying to teach a programme to have these skills is impossible today and will remain extremely costly in the future. Therefore, to succeed in the era of technology focus on improving the skills which make you inherently human. As well as those already listed think about other very human skills such as creativity, caring and problem solving.
• This focus on cultivating ‘human’ skills can be seen from a slightly different perspective, and involves a mindset shift away from how your parents and teachers probably told you to think. Instead of thinking you should look for a ‘career’ to take you through to retirement and a nice pension, in the age of robots and AI you need to move to seeing yourself as having a ‘set of skills’ which need to constantly be honed and improved to fit the changing landscape of the job market.
• Robots and computer programmes can have far superior Intelligence quotient (IQ) than humans, so accept this and don’t try to challenge them on this front, you will lose. Instead focus on Emotional quotient (EQ) i.e. Emotional Intelligence. EQ is made up of all the things I’ve already touched on above, specifically:
  • Social Awareness
  • Relationship Management
  • Self-Awareness
  • Self-Management
  • Interpersonal skills

Re-introduction of Versatility

• Since the 1st and 2nd Industrial Revolutions – using water and steam power and then electric power to create mass production – humans have been rewarded for skill specialisation, not skill versatility. Before the 1st Industrial Revolution skill specialisation wasn’t required or rewarded. What use was it being excellent at sharpening a stick millions of years ago, if you couldn’t run fast and also throw accurately? Ever since the Industrial Revolution human’s capability to understand the majority of things around us has dramatically reduced, whilst our knowledge in one specific area has dramatically increased. For example, I wouldn’t have any idea how to catch prey in the forest, know which berries I can eat or how to do simple diagnostics if a car broke down, but my understanding of Digital Technology, Cloud Infrastructure and Workplace Transformation is very deep and I could talk all day and night about these. For the last few hundred years this specialisation has been rewarded with higher pay and prestige within society, however in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution I believe there will be a reverse in this trend.
• Where humans will thrive in the new age is by being able to have hybrid dynamic skills, and the ability to combine two roles in one. Let’s take product management, it is one of the most in-demand professions around today and is a great example of a hybrid job, combining product, technology and business skills. It is also a great example of a job which didn’t exist even 10 years ago, highlighting that new jobs for humans will come out of this intelligent technology dominated future.  What does that mean to you? In an excellent article called ‘The Time for the Hybrid Job is Now‘ they tackle this question. In summary, the argument which I agree with is, if you’re in a technical profession, focus on acquiring marketing and business skills. If you’re on the creative side, consider analytics. The company you are applying to is going to look for both sets of skills.
• The re-introduction of versatility will not only help you continue to find work in the next 20+ years it should also help you enjoy that work more and make it more rewarding. One of the best thing about the rise of robotics, AI and computer bots is that – especially in the start –the work they’ll take away from humans is the boring, repetitive and ‘routine’ work we don’t really enjoy doing. The argument goes that by taking away this ‘routine’ work it’ll allow humans more time to spend on doing the interesting, creative and productive or ‘non-routine’ work which is more intellectually engaging. Now from a IT consultant perspective this sounds wonderful, the idea of having a computer bot that books my client travel and automatically organises my inbox and diary to allow me to spend more time and effort on delivering value for the client sounds idyllic. But what if you whole job is ‘routine’, not just a few tasks? This is something I’ll cover in more detail in the ‘Be Careful’ section below.

Key Skills

• So far, I’ve focused mainly on the conceptual side of the argument, highlighting the reasons ‘why’ you need to act today to invest in your future skillset and the types of things you should consider. Now I’m going to dive into the tangible stuff, and discuss what you can actually do to achieve it. Personally, I see 6 key things you need to focus on:
  • Increase digital dexterity – Another way of thinking about digital dexterity is digital savviness. This is all about your ability and willingness to keep up with new technology, even if technology is not part of your ‘core’ skillset. Understanding what technology is out there and thinking about how it can be incorporated into the work you do will make you indispensable to companies when – in the next 2 to 10 years – they start adding more automation and intelligent technology to their workplace.
  • Improve agility – In the intelligent technology age, someone who adapts quickly to change and is task-led rather than confined to the narrow remit of their job role will thrive. Practice this every day, push yourself to widen your comfort zone, help a colleague out with something you’ve never done before and be willing to test new things out. Fail small to win big. The more you do outside your comfort zone the wider the comfort zone will become and the larger your skillset.
  • Embrace change – I recently moved on from a role I’d had – and was doing successfully – for a few years, however I stopped being pushed and felt I hadn’t learned anything new in months. So, I pushed myself, taking a leap of faith, and took on a new role in an area I had little client experience in. I was extremely nervous on the first few days, but I absolutely loved it, and I learned more in the last 5 weeks than the last 9 months in my previous role. Don’t be afraid of change, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable in the short term. Similar to improving agility, if you don’t get into the habit of voluntary changing regularly – in your work or personal life – you won’t be able to handle involuntary change.
  • Don’t lose appetite to learn – After 12+ years of exams through school then university lots of people say ‘I can’t wait to never sit an exam again’, and that is fine for the first couple of years of not having to stress about summer finals, but you have to snap out of that mindset soon. Exams are a way of proving you’ve learnt something, and signal your ability in a given area. You can’t afford to lose that appetite to learn. Even if it doesn’t culminate in an exam, be inquisitive to learn new skills, you might find you enjoy the new thing more than you did the old.
  • Build and maintain a network – Yes, networking is vile, and that isn’t what this is about. It’s about always giving your best, doing a great job, and then staying in contact with the people who (a) you worked for (b) you worked with. These ‘networks’ are significantly stronger that the ones you build at a fabricated ‘network event’. Don’t touch those things with a barge pole, but do keep in contact with people, catch up for drinks occasionally, and remind them of the skills you have and the great times you had together, you never know where they’ll be in a few years.
  • Be creative – Artificial intelligence might be able to do complex maths faster and better than you can, but it really struggles with one key human trait, logical leaps of imagination.  Creativity isn’t something you are either born with or not, it comes with practice, and improves with time and dedication. James Altucher – the serial entrepreneur and podcaster (among many things) – often challenges people to exercise their creative muscle by coming up with 10 new ideas every day, an extremely difficult thing to do! He believes that ideas are the currency of the 21st Century, and that creative people are the ones who will succeed in the next 50 years. If you are interested in reading more on James Altucher I suggest starting with my review of his book The Rich Employee, here.
• If you actively work on each of these 6 things on a weekly basis, I truly believe you will be well positioned to thrive in the age of automation and robotics. Moreover, doing each of these also has the potential to make you a happier and less stressed person. If you embrace change, are agile and build strong networks you have the core skills to be able to respond quickly and effectively to anything in life, and won’t be stressed that the loss of one thing can bring down the house of cards. I believe that preparing for the age of intelligent technology is similar to Nassim Taleb’s concept of Anti-Fragility, read all about my views on Anti-Fragility here.

Be Careful

• Whilst I believe that working on each of the 6 points above actively today will ensure that any individual will be able to thrive in the age of intelligent technology, there are two main concerns I have at the macro level which could hurt humanity as a whole, I want to touch on these briefly.
  • Inequality – Automation and robotics have the potential to give the global 0.01% an even greater source of wealth and power, after all they’ll own the means of the vast majority of production. We need to find a way to share the productive output of robotics, AI etc. more evenly, otherwise the problems we have today with disengagement and hatred of the system will only get worse. In the last century, the greatest redistribution of wealth has occurred as a result of horrendous World Wars. The pressure cooker of inequality has once again risen to outrageous levels and intelligent technology could make this worse unless we start addressing things today.
  • Education and Re-education – I’ve touched on this a couple of times already, but want to spend a little more time on it here. The idea for me of getting rid of the 10-30% of my daily ‘routine’ tasks to focus on the creative and valuable things I do sounds amazing, but what if you have a job that is 100% ‘routine’ and automatable? Governments – and companies – across the globe need to be doing more to help educate children and adults better for a world in which intelligent technology does significantly more today, and invest in programmes to help re-educate those who lose their jobs to automation to learn new skills.

Conclusion

• We live in an extremely important point in human history – although I’m sure every generation says this. As we head into the 4th Industrial Revolution the decisions we make today could shape the future of mankind. Whilst I am optimistic about how humans and intelligent technology can co-exist and complement each other in the workplace, that isn’t going to happen inevitably, you must act today to ensure the skillset you have is relevant tomorrow.
• It is today, and I believe it will be for at least another 15-20 years, too expensive and difficult to get machines to have the ability to connect on a personal level, care for humans and be genuinely creative to take over from humans in these areas. It’ll be the individuals who cultivate these skills, as well as remain agile, embrace change and are digitally dexterous who will be the most successful in the next 15-20 years regardless of other skills.
• Don’t wait for it to be too late to act, start thinking today, tomorrow and each day how you be grow your skillset and your comfort zone to be ready for the rise of intelligent technology in the workplace.

 

N.B. I purposefully haven’t touched on the potential interlink or integration of intelligent technology and humans because I believe this is still a long way off, however if you are interested in where this is going and how we might all become cyborgs in the future I suggest you read this post by Tim Urban explaining Elon Musk’s new venture ‘Neuralink’:  http://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html

 

Photo Credit