Innovation Now Disrupts 5X More Jobs Annually (But There Is Good News)

Artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation is disrupting between 5 and 10% of jobs annually, according to Julia Lamm, a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

That’s a 5X jump from traditional levels of 1-2%.

Julia Lamb, partner at PwC, on-stage at Tech Beach Retreat in Jamaica

The result?

“30% of jobs are are high risk of displacement by 2030,” Lamm said at TechBeach Retreat in Jamaica. “55% of people are worried automation or other innovation will take their job away.”

Lamm was talking about the future of work, an ongoing concern in a world where upwards of 40% of all jobs are projected to be at risk of automation. And where AI is projected to impact 500 million jobs globally in the next five years.

The good news is that 74% of people are willing to be “reskilled,” Lamm said.

The top 10 skills that PwC says are projected to be in demand are:

“You see things that cannot be replaced and cannot be automated,” Lamm said.

There is some good news for those who are worried about automation taking over their jobs, however. While the pace of innovation has been increasing, the coming year may be a time of consolidation and regrouping.

PwC’s annual AI Predictions report is now live, and one of its findings is that that only 4% of executives plan to deploy AI enterprise-wide in 2020, a company representative told me

That compares to 20% who had hoped to do the same last year. That might mean that workers have a bit more time than they originally thought. And even when it does come, there is is still hope.

“Activities are being replaced, roles are evolving continuously,” Lamm said. “It’s more of an augmentation than a direct line of replacement.”

PwC’s consumer report survey over 12,000 people globally, Lamm said.