Make way for our future overlords: Robots to take 6 percent of jobs by 2021
Robots are poised to replace interns as the unrewarded and unpaid worker ants of industry. A study by Forrester Research has projected that by 2021, artificial intelligence will be sophisticated enough to push many out of the job market as we know it.
The future of technology growing bright could signal lights out for taxi drivers, bankers and customer service agents. In a report released by Forrester Research, six percent of jobs could be taken by “early-stage intelligent agents,” as soon as 2021. The study cites Facebook, Amazon and Apple as being at the forefront of developing nuanced bots that rely on algorithms like Siri, and that they could eventually replace truck drivers.
"By 2021, a disruptive tidal wave will begin," Brian Hopkins, vice president at Forrester wrote. "Solutions powered by AI/cognitive technology will displace jobs, with the biggest impact felt in transportation, logistics, customer service, and consumer services."
But those industries aren’t the only ones that could replace their flesh-and-bone employees with something more mechanical. Researchers at the World Economic Forum have grimmer predictions. They see 7.1 million jobs being replaced with algorithms, two-thirds of which will be “concentrated in the Office and Administrative job family,” Digital Trends reported.
Self-driving cars are set to hit the market within the next decade, which is a direct threat to taxi and trucking industries – as well as the auto industry itself. Sales of vehicles could sink 40 percent over the next 25 years if self-driving cars become viable in the marketplace, according to a 2015 report from Barclays analyst Brian Johnson.
As if that wasn’t enough, robots could replace surly teenagers behind the counter of fast food restaurants too. Carl’s Jr. CEO Andy Puzder is so confident in intelligence agents (IA), that he expressed an interest in investing in the technology he witnessed at Eatsa, a full automated restaurant in Canoga Park, California.
"They're always polite, they always up sell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," said Puzder of the benefits of machines versus man.
