With the continued commoditisation of the global workforce, an explosion of connected devices and machines sharing data and automating tasks, as well as advanced artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality – repetitive, binary, or work that has low levels of creativity or social interaction, is being de-humanised.

As a result, 40% of today’s jobs may be gone in 10-15 years. A good illustration of this phenomenon is that as autonomous driving systems take hold, the human skill of driving is no longer a requirement of jobs related to that skill (trucks, taxis, trains, delivery bikes, and vans).

Gone

• Blue-collar jobs – industry, agriculture, mining
• All forms of transportation
• Digital hospital logistics
• Newspapers – journalism and editorial
• White-collar professions – accounting, law, economists, bankers
• Clerical – administration, back office processing
• Retail – check outs, commodity purchasing
• Robotic pharma, nursing, surgery, dentistry

But it’s not just low-skilled workers who are being displaced – expert fact-based knowledge workers in domains such as law, accounting, pharma, and medicine are also under threat.

Mainstream

• Web development, mobile applications development
• Interface design and software programming of machines – fridges, cars, houses
• Social media managers
• Digital experience consultants and designers
• Data analysis and interpretation
• Cyberbusiness continuity consultant
• Cybersecurity analyst
• Immersive reality experience – hospitality, tourism, healthcare, education & training
• Freelance online lecturer / tutor
• Using digital diagnostics and decision support – all professions and trades
• 3D print product designer
• Cyber-secure componentry engineer

Shifting emphasis in traditional sectors – Jobs that have appeared in recent years and were treated as specialised, will become embedded into the standard organisational workforce and team structures. For example, business systems will require new design thinking in order to have a standard augmented reality interface, operate on new devices, run from the cloud, involve multiple ecosystem partners and incorporate security standards to protect against cyberthreats.

Other conventional jobs will be significantly enhanced by technology. For example, your local plumber will analyse data from sensors on your home fixtures, use digital diagnostics, print parts using a mobile 3D printer, provide you with an augmented reality view of your plumbing systems, and conduct some repairs by directing a robotic apprentice.

While blue-collar jobs in manufacturing and production are disappearing, the manufacturing industry itself is adapting, embracing mass customisation, and adopting advanced technological practices in component or additive manufacturing. Value is also shifting from tangible assets, such as products to intangible assets, such as designs and services. In this context, there is a significant opportunity to grow the advanced manufacturing sector through emphasising investment in R&D, design, sales, and services.

New jobs

The list below is an imaginative, but not at all fanciful, extrapolation from the technological, social, environmental, and economic trends playing out now. For example, reputation and personal data managers will assist individuals with their digital identity management, monitor their persona, and protect them from unwanted approaches or reputational damage.

Democracy designers will guide emerging states or provinces in sustainable systems of government, leveraging digital platforms for policy, governance, citizen engagement, and service delivery. The pace and extent of these changes finds politicians, governments, educators, company directors, employers, unions, ethicists, and social planners reacting to address the impacts already upon us.

In the absence of a coordinated, forward-focused response, some people are understandably becoming more anxious about the future.

Nationally, we need far-reaching discussions of the macro-economic and societal impacts and we need to set down cohesive plans. For example, what and where are the new jobs for blue-collar workers? Should we prepare for a generation (or more) of displaced workers and, in so doing, make proportionate adjustments to social safety nets? What are the opportunities for systemic reforms and nation building?

We also need to drill down into the micro-impacts on communities – schools, local businesses, streets, and families? What are the scenarios for your neighbourhood? Are people concerned or excited about what this means for their survival, purpose, and meaning? Where are digital fractures and divides emerging? How is this playing out across the city and country areas, across industries, cultures, and generations?

New

• Aged Care – social facilitator, facility designer
• Data Management – data interpreter, home integration expert
• Digital Identity and Reputation – reputation manager, personal database manager
• Education & Disability – learning facilitator, micro-degree / nano-degree co-ordinator
• Services Broker – legal broker, relationship broker
• Health & Wellbeing – data personal trainer, geneticist healer, brain implant surgeon, health promotion consultant
• Manufacturing & Supply Chain – 3D print product designer, drone delivery network operator
• Agriculture – data farmer, tropical climate specialist,
• Social Sustainability – elder, democracy designer
• Games, Entertainment, Training – motion capture actor, virtual reality (VR) process consultant
• Environmental Sustainability – computer scavenger, energy efficiency adviser, sustainability engineer, planetary engineer, water conservation engineer, builder of dykes

For more detail on how your business can leverage the opportunities of digital disruption, download the executive summary and the white paper by clicking below.

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