The future of jobs in an age of AI and automation has been a popular topic on this show. We’ve tended to talk in quite theoretical terms and never truly considered what practical solutions there might be to the inevitable job displacement. Millions of jobs have already been lost in the pandemic, and the World Economic Forum predicts that an additional 85 million jobs with be lost to automation by 2025. So what type of jobs will disappear, and how do we upskill and transition the large proportion of the workforce who will be affected?
My guests this week are Madeleine Gabriel and Karlis Kanders from Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. Nesta has just completed a significant piece of research called Mapping Careers Causeways, which is intended to support job transitions and inform skills policy in a labour market that AI and Automation will forever change.
In the interview, we discuss:
▪ The uncertain future of work
▪ Which jobs are at risk of automation
▪ Identifying pathways from high-risk occupations to safer ones
▪ Why women are twice as likely to be displaced than men
▪ The three types of core skills that will help people transition
▪ The critical importance of training
▪ The role of talent acquisition
▪ Thinking differently about hiring
▪ Why the best way to predict the future is to create it
