The jobs for which ‘job-guarantee’ is just not a phrase that’s applicable!
Fast Food workers
None of you might consider a career as a burger flipper, but those of you willing to do it whilst in school or college for pocket money might need to find a new option. Small restaurants might not be able to afford automation, but big chains will definitely want to reduce headcounts. Machines are cheaper and make less mistakes. We expect perfectly cooked and mass made manufactured fast food.
Pilots and army grunts
Drones are already grabbing the headlines in warfare, and we expect this trend to continue. People are expensive – they need to be fed and protected in battle. When mass made, machines are cheaper, and with new technologies, they’re getting smarter than ever before. Pretty soon, wars are going to be won by geeks piloting machines from far away, using virtual reality headsets.
Semiconductor technicians
Pretty soon the machines won’t need us to make them. Well, at least in part. The thing with machines is that they’re built with precision, and precision is what machines also happen to be best at. Stands to reason that they will excel at building themselves.
Construction jobs
Again, this is a job that is pretty repetitive and requires precision. Now, architects are creative, and until machines get creative, those jobs are safe. However, everything from brick laying to mixing and pouring concrete, and even carpentry and electrical work is really a precision job that can be automated. Plus, pre-fabrication of homes and buildings (Ikea style) will also make this field perfect for automation.
Designers / average artists
We’re not going as far as writing off skilled artists just yet, but we certainly think that automation (especially software-based) will make a designer irrelevant. This is already happening with so many apps and sites being built by novices. Software will cut out the middle man, and give complete control to the creators. if you think this will result in ugly apps, sites and designs in general... you are probably a designer, and our sympathies for your upcoming redundancy!
Retail clerks
This one is a no-brainer if you’ve been abroad to a first world country. Self-service is the name of the game, and retail have only skeleton staff. Sure, your corner shop isn’t going to invest in self-checkout machines, but then between online shopping giants and large retail chains, the days for the corner shop are numbered anyway. You hate it now, but soon you will miss the person walking up to you going, “May I help you”.
Air Traffic Controllers
We’ve all seen busy ATC towers, with controllers juggling the lives of thousands every minute of every day... this isn’t really the case anymore. Computers do most of the work now, and humans only supervise. Although we may never see the end of a human in an ATC tower (to keep us passengers reassured), technology is seeing to it that the number of people will see a drastic decline for sure.
Bank tellers
Seriously, who goes to a bank anymore anyway? Old people? 15 years from now and most of the old people will be people who are used to using technology, and the young people will never have known another way... who’s going to want to go to a bank and stand in line then, when everything you want can be done online? For better or worse, bankers are going to have to find different ways of being useful soon.
Simple office jobs
If you have a job being a postal sorter, a data entry “specialist”, or a receptionist, etc., sadly, you better start finding a new career. These are the jobs we expect will get axed really early on in the next 15 years. Why? Because automation will do the job with ever decreasing errors, and make it absurd for companies to hire people to do these anymore.
Uber / taxi drivers
Perhaps this will take longer than 15 years for India, but we certainly expect the job of drivers abroad to be under threat towards the end of the next 15 years. There is just too much R&D being done in this field, and the results are just way too promising. Machines never tire, never fall asleep at the wheel, and never speed or drive drunk. The only driving that people will do will be for fun.
Call centre / telemarketeers
We’re sure that each one of you has already received an automated call from some provider that was just playing back a pre-recorded message. Right? Even call centres are set to be totally automated. Almost all services try and give you an app that allows you to try and self-solve problems, this is repeated even when you call the call centre – self-serve, self-solve is the future, and we’re not missing the people at all.
Sex workers
This one is going to raise a few eyebrows, but like it or not, there’s a reason why it’s considered the world’s oldest profession. If anything, we should rejoice that it will soon be a thing of the past, as will all the evils that accompany it. The Japanese are leading the game for this, and if history has taught us anything, the world is quick to get on the bandwagon of anything that helps it get off...
Assembly line employees
This one is already happening, and we expect it to get worse over the next 15 years. Machines are just better at repetitive assembly, and don’t tire. There’s going to be a huge upheaval in skilled but non-creative fields, and those of you still in school or college looking ahead at careers should take serious note of all the stuff in this article. We may be trying to make it sound funny, but we’re dead serious.
Accountants
With most purchases being done online or by swiping cards, it’s no surprise that there’s more transparency in all things financial. Add to this the increasingly efficient automation of accounting and book-balancing packages, and the future for accountants really does seem very bleak. Of course you can always diversify into investments and find creative tax loopholes as a consultant, but that’s not something a majority of the lower level accountants can achieve sadly.
Interpreters / translators
With natural language processing improving a lot over the past few years, and a focus on personal assistants by all major tech companies (especially in your mother tongue), this really should come as no surprise to anyone. Computers are just getting better every day at translation, and 15 years is a really long time in tech. We totally expect our smartphones to be capable of on-the-fly, near-perfect translation of any language to ours by 2031.
This story was part our 15 year Anniversary celebration and first appeared in our June edition. Be sure to check out our e-mag app (iOS Android) to download the latest issues of Digit, SKOAR and d-mystify.