Companies, employees not quite ready for cognitive technology wave of robotics, AI, machine learning
Larry Dignan for Between the Lines: Robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other cognitive technologies will replace about 7 percent of U.S. jobs by 2025 with office and administrative staff taking the biggest hit, according to a Forrester Research forecast.
The bad news is jobs will be lost. The good news is that new gigs will be created as cognitive technology takes hold. One reason the disruption won't be larger or happen sooner is that companies aren't ready for the change related to the new automated workforce, said Forrester.
- Among the key items:
- 16 percent of U.S. jobs will be replaced, but 9 percent of jobs will be created. That's how Forrester gets to the 7 percent job loss by 2025 figure.
- Emerging jobs will be robot monitoring pros, data scientists, automation specialists and content curators.
- 93 percent of automation technologists feel unprepared to take on smart machine technologies.
- 83 percent saw cognitive computing as critical to their companies' future.
- 32 percent of respondents said they are prepared for the cognitive technology changes ahead, but only 12 percent are prepared to deal with the human and organizational fallout.
- 46 percent say the number of jobs will remain about the same and 43 percent of respondents thought jobs would decline.
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