The World Economic Forum (WEF) envisions a bleak future, predicting that artificial intelligence automation and robotics will take over 5 million jobs over the next four years.
It's not the first time we hear of such a turn, as the digital revolution is steadily gaining ground and is threatening to replace a large part of the human workforce. We've already heard of a robot lawyer and a robot weather reporter, and it's only the beginning.
As great advances in technology are increasingly changing the industrial scene, the WEF expects humans to lose roughly 5 million jobs to robots by 2020.
"Today, we are on the cusp of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and biotechnology, to name just a few, are all building on and amplifying one another," the WEF notes in its report [pdf]. "This will lay the foundation for a revolution more comprehensive and all-encompassing than anything we have ever seen."
The WEF further points out that this imminent revolution holds great patterns, but it will also overhaul the patterns of production, consumption, and employment. This will in turn pose a considerable challenge to governments, corporations, as well as individuals, as they will have to proactively adapt to this change.
The rise of artificial intelligence and robots will play a heavy role in these disruptive changes on the labor market, and will lead to a net loss of 5.1 million jobs in 15 leading countries, according to the WEF Davos study.
More specifically, the WEF predicts a total loss of a staggering 7.1 million jobs, which will be offset by the addition of 2 million new jobs. The 15 leading countries included in the survey make up roughly 65 percent of the world's total workforce.
Australia, Germany, the U.S., China, France, Italy, India, Britain, and Japan will reportedly be among the countries most affected by this transition.
The office and administrative sectors are expected to see two-thirds of these projected job losses, as AI and robots will take over some tasks. Virtually every industry will face displaced jobs, but not all will suffer the same impact. Healthcare will also see some of the biggest losses.
Despite the digital revolution threatening to take over millions of jobs, however, some specifically skilled workers such as sales representatives or data analysts will likely be in increased demand.
Lastly, the WEF predicts that women will face the most job losses, as female employees are often working in declining or slow-growth areas such as office and administrative roles or sales.
