The robotization of jobs, the use of Artificial Intelligence, the application of big data, and the automation of processes put millions of jobs at risk. Some industries will feel the change more strongly than others, and some workers will be more affected. We will tell you which jobs will disappear in the next 20 years.
Although this sounds terrible, there is good news: many of the jobs that will exist in the future have not even been invented yet, and others are beginning to become popular in companies and for which it is possible to train and not be left behind.
- Drivers and chauffeurs
Thanks to being equipped with LiDAR radars, artificial vision, GPS, and AI, autonomous vehicles that do not need drivers are a reality. In some countries, they are already authorized to take to the road.
There are companies working on projects to create autonomous trucks, farm machinery, and trains. When all this is perfected and legalized, bus, cab, and train drivers will have their hours counted in their jobs.
An example is the autonomous cabs already circulating in San Francisco, which have also been implemented in China, Germany, and other countries.
- Warehouse staff
The pandemic increased online shopping, so there is a greater volume of movements in the warehouses of large Internet sales sites. This increased the number of people working in their warehouses and accelerated warehouse automation technology implementation.
These automated warehouses have several advantages. For example, goods can be stored at greater heights using robots and stacker cranes that can handle heavy pallets. It reduces the risks associated with moving these pallets, as the likelihood of human error is eliminated.
The conveyor belts and robots are controlled by software that tells them exactly where each item is and gives them instructions on what to do with each item. In addition, control software allows them to know the stock of each product and the best place to store the merchandise that has to enter.
It not only happens with small products in warehouses of companies that sell to the public. There are other examples, such as the famous case of automatic parking lots.
- ATMs
This is something that in South America is still not so usual, but in other countries, the cashiers in supermarkets are already disappearing. Each customer carries out the cashiering process.
They pass the products through a scale or sensor, register everything they are carrying, swipe the card or deposit the corresponding money and leave without interacting with anyone. This reduces costs for the companies since they transfer the process to the customer. How long before this measure becomes popular in other industries?
We have long been accustomed to the fact that a robot vacuum cleaner can clean our house by itself, various online applications can easily write my paper for me, and chatbot replaces our live counseling. So, ATMs are already becoming a thing of the past.
- Fast food cooks
This is another industry that seeks to reduce costs by replacing personnel with robots that can automate the process. Again, this is not something that will happen in the distant future; it is already happening. So rather than being on the list of jobs that will disappear in the next 20 years, fast food cooks should be on the list of jobs that will disappear in 5 years.
- Farmers
Until recently, one person had to measure the field. Others were in charge of removing weeds from the field. Others sowed, others tended the crop, and others did the harvesting.
Today the land is measured with drones or satellite images. Weeding is almost never done anymore because the soil is treated with chemicals that do not allow weeds to grow, and seeds resistant to different pests are used. Planting and harvesting time has been reduced thanks to the invention of agricultural machinery that is more and more specific for different types of crops. And this will be further accelerated with the introduction of autonomous equipment like the ones I told you about.
From all this, we can conclude that to be a farmer; it will be necessary to specialize and have degrees related to technology. And the need for these capital resources will lead to an increasing concentration of land ownership.
- Travel agents
For the new generations, accustomed to self-management of most things, it is quite rare to think of going to a travel agency to have someone organize your vacation.
Today it is more typical to turn to companies like Skyscanner to buy airline tickets. Enter Booking.com or Airbnb to make hotel reservations. Other sites allow you to book tickets to the attractions you are interested in or buy tickets to the places you want to go. That is, it is no longer necessary to resort to someone who has contacts with wholesalers to do the work for you. Now it is normal for you to do everything on your own directly with the suppliers.
This change undoubtedly puts travel agents among the jobs that will disappear in the next 20 years.
- Stockbrokers
This is a job that will disappear for two reasons. On the one hand, the volume of stocks that are managed by bots is increasing. That is, some robots are programmed with Artificial Intelligence algorithms to detect market signals and make decisions to buy or sell shares. Currently, all major fund managers use robots to manage their assets.
On the other hand, small individual investors who used to need access to a broker to be able to trade in the market can now do it on their own, thanks to online investment platforms, such as eToro. If you know a little about how the market works, you can invest in the stock market through these platforms. You can even start trading on eToro without knowing anything, as it allows you to copy people who know better.
With these facilities, who would pay a broker to do the work he can do himself?
- Construction workers
People will always need to build a house, a bridge, or a building. But it will no longer be unskilled labor that will do it.
With the new dry manufacturing technologies or the much more advanced 3D printing technology, it takes fewer and fewer people to build a house, and it can be done faster and faster. Remember the hospital that China built in 6 days before the pandemic? As you can imagine, these technological advances will leave aside those who cannot adapt or train themselves.
Undoubtedly, fewer people will be needed in the construction industry, making it one of the jobs that will disappear in the next 20 years.
So what do we do now?
Many more jobs will disappear: sports referees, accountants, editors and printers, and mail carriers, among others. This reality should not depress us but motivate us to investigate which jobs will continue to exist and which will become the most prestigious new jobs. Despite technological advances, we must also motivate ourselves to train ourselves and grow as professionals.
