Forbes, US: Cognizant Provides Grounded Look at Jobs of the Future

“It's rather unfortunate that much of the dialogue around the future of work has been on the number of jobs that will be lost and so on,” writes Forbes contributor Adi Gaskell. “It's a narrative that doesn't really provide an accurate reflection of the true state of things.” Excerpts:

“There is a growing consensus that AI-driven technology will change the kind of work we do, which will require adaptation both of the roles themselves and the skills required to perform them.  It will automate some entirely (although not as many as predicted), and the productivity gains will result in new jobs emerging.

It's difficult to go too far down this path without getting into the realm of science fiction, but one of the more grounded attempts at doing so comes via a recent report from consultancy firm Cognizant, who have suggested 21 jobs that might emerge in the coming years.

Suffice to say, some of the roles identified by Cognizant require very different skills than those commonly used in the labor market today.  Perhaps the best lesson to take away from the report however is that such is the pace of change in the workplace that skills are now akin to mobile apps, which require constant upgrades to ensure they're viable.

To keep track of the progress of these proposed jobs, Cognizant have created a Jobs of the Future Index, which will monitor the emergence of the predicted jobs from both 2018 and 2017 Jobs of the Future reports by the company.”

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