It's called the 4th Industrial Revolution and regarded as the most impactful one by industry leaders – AI will radically disrupt and transform job markets.
Not surprisingly, there's growing skepticism and speculation on the impact of AI on industries and jobs. While the predictions range from optimistic to devastating, there is no doubt about the significant workforce shift with the change in nature of jobs and skills.
However, in any scenario, lower paid jobs requiring routine manual and minimal cognitive skills will be the first to be replaced by AI, as is already happening in administrative, manufacturing and logistics industries. Likewise, non-routine cognitive and creative skills will have higher demand. As observed in previous industrial revolutions, jobs destruction in the short-term will be out-numbered by jobs creation in the long-term, the latter being based more on emerging technologies.
With AI progressively driving industrial growth making processes more automated, sectors and businesses employing such technologies will benefit the most, thereby offering higher salaries. And therefore, non-AI based sectors and related jobs may struggle triggering a rise in socio-economic inequality with job market polarisation.
(Source: www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services, www.mckinsey.com, www.weforum.org)