Though reports vary a little bit, most experts believe that between a quarter and a half of current jobs are threatened by automation. Some of these we see in our everyday lives, such as self-checkout machines at the grocery store, but where automation and artificial intelligence do most of their “work” is in behind-the-scenes jobs crunching numbers and providing predictive analysis to help industries become more efficient.
Adding fuel to the proverbial fire is the economic downturn caused by the COVID pandemic, as businesses are naturally more apt to look at automation options when they are struggling as opposed to when they are flourishing.
For people who program AI machines, the future is certainly bright, but for people who do jobs that are being taken over by automation, the opposite is true. Though reports predict that manual labor jobs will be more likely to be affected than those requiring degrees, there are still plenty of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree that is also being threatened.
Universities are historically good at teaching their students how to succeed in their field in the “now” and in the future, but some are having to come to the realization that some jobs are going to be virtually extinct because of automation, many of which require a college degree. Here is a look at 4 such jobs, and similar alternatives for individuals interested in them.
Business Administration
Administrative tasks are similar across a variety of industries, and this makes automating them a very good business move because of the vastness of sales opportunities. With that, jobs that involve a lot of data inputting and organizing are becoming more and more dependent on automation. Many schools are offering degrees in Business Administration in the AI Sector, and this would be a nice alternative to a regular Admin degree.
Accounting
AI is all about numbers, and so is accounting. And perhaps even more than in business administration, accounting jobs exist in almost all industries, from medicine to non-profits to politics, and everything in between. Programming is becoming easier to learn and more widely needed, and actually has a lot of similarities in day-to-day processes as accounting does.
Paralegal Work
Paralegal work is a more defined niche of business administration, and for the same reasons is threatened by automation. These individuals do tend to do a lot of writing, and this part of the job isn’t expected to be replaced. For paralegals, the nature of the work is certainly going to change, so for individuals already in the field, further education in writing may be of value, and for prospective students, an extra focus on writing in your classes would also serve you well!
Loan Officers
Similar to the reasons that accounting is being threatened by automation, loan officers’ jobs are heavily dependent on mathematics, which technology continues to prove itself much better at than most humans. In addition, there are still a lot of demographic disparities when it comes to loan approval, an implicit bias is easier to beat with artificial intelligence, so there is both financial and moral pressure to use more automation in this field.
Financial cybersecurity is one aspect of the money business that is expected to continue having a lot of opportunities and job security.
Honorable Mentions
There are also many benefits of things like robot-assisted surgery and other medical advancements, but the majority of these AI devices are expected to be heavily reliant on human oversight, making the job different, but not necessarily obsolete.
There is a very good chance that whatever field you happen to be in will be affected by automation in the next decade, but evolving your skill set to match the times is easier than ever with online education (which happens to be fairly reliant on automation).
