For three decades now, James Cameron's Terminator franchise has kept millions entertained and alarmed about a world where machines dominate mankind. And the march to robots increasing their hold on human activities is continuing in the real world—a World Economic Forum report has said by 2025, machines will handle 52 per cent of current work tasks, displacing almost 75 million people from the workplace.
However, its not all ominous for mankind as rapid advances in computer technology will also create 133 million new jobs between now and 2022, in place of the 75 million jobs that will be lost to robots taking over roles.
The WEF's Future of Jobs 2018 report notes the sectors most vulnerable to the 'takeover' of human roles by robots will be accounting, client management and industrial, postal and secretarial functions. But sectors where human skills remain relevant—such as sales, marketing, customer service, e-commerce and social media—will see a spurt in demand.
Not surprisingly, the report notes that the increasing role of robots will necessitate the retraining of workers in areas such as "creativity, critical thinking and persuasion”.
The sectors where such retraining would be most necessary would be aviation and the travel and tourism sectors, which are transitioning toward automation and artificial intelligence-based technologies.
(With agency inputs)
