As technological and artificial intelligence research and development continues to flourish across the globe, making leaps and bounds at an ever quickening pace, just what could the future of working life look like by 2020?
Many societies worldwide are welcoming technological advancements with open arms, but are we being too hasty in our wide-spread acceptance of technological upheaval? Here’s 10 IT future of work forecasts from analyst firm Gartner’s Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future Is a Digital Thing report:
Gartner sees a future in which robots and humans co-exist, but as Gartner envisions it “by 2018, more than three million workers globally will be supervised by a robo-boss.”
As work becomes more quantitatively assessable in terms of key performance indicators, robo-bosses programmed to make logical staffing choices will increasingly carry out supervisory duties.
Gartner projects these robo-bosses will mainly be used in managerial roles, as well as being used to assess workers.
Gartner’s other prediction revolves around health & fitness trackers. The firm forecasts that by 2018 around 2 million employees will be required as a condition of their employment to wear health & fitness trackers.
Gartner believes this will be prompted by health & safety initiatives for those working on hazardous work sites first and foremost. Such devices would measure respiration and heart rate in some cases. They project fitness trackers would become mandatory for use by industrial workers, airline pilots, professional athletes, political leaders and remote field workers.
If Gartner’s predictions pan-out machines will be writing our reports, press releases, whitepapers and more, as well as turning analytical and database information into content which businesses can make use of through automated writing software tools.
Microsoft is already looking into this area…
The Internet of Things trend has seen internet-accessible devices flying off the shelves and into homes and businesses. By 2018, this snowballing trend will reach such astronomical proportions that a whole new industry will be born to cater to the demand for servicing Internet of Things devices.
By 2020, existing financial services will be disrupted by the ‘programmable economy’. The ‘programmable economy’ consists of sophisticated software applications which use algorithms to complete financial transactions without any human help.
Such software will be able to perform banking, exchanges, crowd funding, insurance and much more.