By JACQUES BUGHIN ET AL
Over the next 10 to 15 years, the adoption of automation and AI technologies will transform the workplace as people increasingly interact with ever-smarter machines.
These technologies, and that human-machine interaction, will bring numerous benefits in the form of higher productivity, GDP growth, improved corporate performance and new prosperity, but they will also change the skills required of human workers.
To measure skill shifts from automation and AI, we modelled skill shifts going forward to 2030 — and found that they accelerated. While the demand for technological skills has been growing since 2002, it will gather pace in the 2016-30 period.
The increase in the need for social and emotional skills will similarly accelerate. By contrast, the need for both basic cognitive skills and physical and manual skills will decline.
All technological skills, both advanced and basic, will see a substantial growth in demand.
Advanced technologies require people who understand how they work and can innovate, develop and adapt them. Our research suggests that through 2030, the time spent using advanced technological skills will rise 50% in the US and 41% in Europe. We expect the fastest rise in the need for advanced IT and programming skills, which could grow 90% during 2016-30.
People with these skills will inevitably be a minority. However, there is also a significant need for everyone to develop basic digital skills for the new age of automation.
(From “Skill Shift: Automation and the Future of the Workforce”)