DISAPPEARING JOBS
Artificial intelligence experts (AI) are of the opinion that 40% of the world’s jobs will be replaced by robots in the next 15 to 25 years. It is inevitable that the large sectors of the workforce will face mass employment, mainly in jobs that involve manual or repetitious labour. One expert narrated an incident that goes like this – “ My grandfather was trained as a blacksmith before World War I. When automobiles and trucks replaced horses, the company sent him and his fellow blacksmiths to mechanic’s school. This transition made sense, as blacksmiths were already adept at working with tools and basic machines”. But today, the employees that AI and automation are replacing will not be able to shift their skill sets. Many of the new jobs are extremely technical.
So here are a few jobs which are likely to disappear or reduce in numbers in India in the near future:
1 Warehouse Workers– This type of job is in imminent danger, as warehousing people filling orders for online sites like Amazon, Filpkart, and others, would be making their business fully automatic. Robots are being developed that could easily fill these positions, and they could work 24/7. The fact is that warehouses will never be 100% human-free, but the type of job will be different than it is today.
2 Payroll- Department Employees– It is forecasted that there will be a massive decline in demand for jobs of such nature, which include payroll clerks, payroll coordinators, payroll specialists, payroll managers, etc. The process of payroll will be totally AI-based.
3 Car Mechanics– Tesla is making waves in the automotive industry, by introducing electric cars, and this is just beginning. The industry as a whole is moving towards all-electric and self-driving vehicles. Mechanics are going to be like computer scientists. It will be more like working on a computer than working on a car. So, the mechanic who likes to get his hands dirty will be thing of the past.
4 Assembly Line Workers– One of the largest anticipated changes will be the transition of assembly-line workers to a heavier emphasis on robotics. Considering that robotic equipment has the ability to maximize efficiency and lower production costs, soon the only available manufacturing position will begin to require skilled trades or industry-specific technical requirements.
5 Fast-Food Restaurant Servers– Already in Japan, human-looking robots take orders and deliver meals in restaurants. In the USA the process of ordering has been automated at McDonald’s, for instance. The workers in the back will still be there, like for cooking food and assembling your order on a cafeteria tray, but there will be little need for a real person to call out ‘ your order is ready ‘ or to deliver to the table.
6 Librarians– With the changing trends, people tend to use more and more electronic readers or audiobooks these days. Slowly there will be fewer and fewer libraries, as they will not disappear overnight, but the rental solution will most likely become an online solution.
7 Computer-Repair Technicians– Already computers are becoming so affordable, that many people are likely to recycle and replace them when they break down than fix them. It is due to the relative cost of parts and labour to have computer repair versus the most affordable replacement cost. Manufacturers may provide instructions to the computer owner on exactly what needs to be fixed and how (if it is hardware), or it is a software fix.
8 Translators– It is not that we will suddenly learn how to speak different languages. It is that the machines will do it for us. Online translators are now able to listen to and translate a conversation on the spot, read it out loud, and swap between dozens of language options.
9 Cashiers– Jobs such as cashiers have already changed while not being entirely replaced. The job of cashier has taken on the flavor of an IT position because self-checkout lanes are growing everywhere.
10 Tollbooth Operators– In India also, at many tollbooths cashless transactions are taking place with the fast tag system, which scans the sticker on your vehicle, and automatically adjusts the balance in your fast tag account.
This is going to pose a big problem for many people, but if you know what to expect, you can start making plans now to develop new skills within your current field or even change careers altogether.
Waiting for your views on this blog
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
19th July 2022
Prakash mahadalkar
Technological advances such as AI , Robotics etc will replace human beings with machines and this cannot be stopped.
As the global population and particularly in India is growing rapidly , the next generation is going to hv a lot of ptoblem finding jobs. It is very scary but unavoidable.
Tejinder Singh Sethi
Estimates suggest that automation could disrupt between 800 million and 2 billion jobs in the next ten years alone.
This will create a huge amount of economic and political upheaval — and how we deal with the joblessness crisis will go down in history as an inspiration to future generations or a disastrous cautionary tale.