Although still in its inception, artificial intelligence is slowly changing the way we work. Depending on who you ask, you’ll hear stories of large scale job loss, robots taking over, and other doomsday conspiracies, which is beginning to worry the workforce.
A recent poll by Monster in Malaysia revealed that 49% of employees are worried that machines might take their job and only 17% feels their job is safe. Whist AI has not led to mass unemployment in the population, jobs that are most at risk are those which are repetitive, highly routine and predictable.
Since change is inevitable with jobs evolving and redefined, employees must shift their focus on taking an active role in making it successful and staying relevant in the workplace – working on developing skills that will be high in demand well into the future. Here are 5 jobs that will survive the AI invasion for the foreseeable future:
Healthcare professionals
Machines are not going to take over some roles for a long time, if at all, because they require emotional skills and human interaction. Healthcare professionals are very much in this category where good bedside manners is complementary to technical skills. There is also an increasing demand for healthcare workers whose main role is being able to support and communicate with patients – and perform tasks that requires empathy.
Teachers
Education is another industry where the need for emotional intelligence makes automation unlikely. Human engagement is critical in young children’s education – being able to support and motivate students, instil social skills and spot potential behavioural or development issues — skills that machines can’t interpret and tackle appropriately.
Authors / writers
Writers have to ideate and create original and compelling content. Whilst AI can assist with the process with title suggestions, smart proofreading and quicker scanning of written documents – jobs that involve genuine creativity such as writing blogs, books or movies, will still be produced by humans in the foreseeable future.
Sales professionals
Relationships drive business and sales professionals need a high level of emotional intelligence to understand customers’ needs and challenges in order to serve them better. AI can play a part here in automating the more mundane tasks, so that sales professionals can focus on the larger picture.
Engineers
Engineers are pretty fundamental to businesses and economies and they will survive the threat of automation. If anything hiring activity is on full swing with various industries from architectural and engineering services to aerospace and agriculture looking for experts in related engineering fields.
