Most of us think, “No way a machine could do what I do.” Over
your whole assignment that may be true. But there are simple repetitive parts of your job could be automated or done with
artificial intelligence (AI) programming.
The drive to work and deliveries will be done by self-driving vehicles. Note auto-pilots
can already take off, fly and land aircraft with minimal intervention by
pilots. The Navy has already tested self-flying aircrafts on carrier decks, the
hardest landing task for pilots.
Computers are better at sorting and searching than we are.
Your work organization could be better managed by programming.
Millions of hours legal research are no longer done by young
lawyers. The AI research programs
are faster, cheaper and more accurate.
In medical fields doctors enter symptoms and programs like IBM’s Watson propose more alternative
diseases for doctors to evaluate than their memory would hold. The result is
less misdiagnosis.
When I started working drafting was done by hand, and every
manager had a secretary or access to a secretary pool. There were dozens of
secretaries in my department. Today my department has 3 office assistants for
~150 people. We all write emails, documents & PowerPoint’s instead of
memos, and schedule meetings with Outlook.
All these jobs are white collar jobs being automated or out sourced.
Parts of all our work can be replaced.
The good news is
what can’t be automated is deep
knowledge and judgment. We need to do is determine what part of our careers is
most valuable, and then focus to be move productive there.
What parts of you job are grinds? Just time consuming. We
need to minimizing those tasks, and focus on making money for our companies.
Not saying there will not be change in our working world. It
is determining what is valued and
providing those services.
