Technology trends that could break or improve careers

Technology is everywhere and a day doesn’t go by without it popping up in every walk of life — but 2019 will be the year technology really changes the world. Employers anticipate a significant shift in the division of labour between humans, machines, and algorithms for the tasks of today.
Currently, an average of 71 per cent of total task hours across the industries is performed by humans, compared to 29 per cent by machines or algorithms.
While some of these may seem obvious — no one will be surprised to hear that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are likely to remain hot topics — the disruptive nature of tech means it’s likely we will get a few surprises.
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation will transform our world. The current debate centres not on whether these changes will take place but on how, when, and where the impact of artificial intelligence will hit hardest.
McKinsey reckons that, depending upon various adoption scenarios, automation will displace between 400 and 800 million jobs by 2030, requiring as many as 375 million people to switch job categories entirely.
Technological change may eliminate specific jobs, but it has always created more in the process. AI and automation will also help to eliminate disease and world poverty.
Already, AI is driving great advances in medicine and healthcare with better disease prevention, higher accuracy
diagnosis, and more effective treatment and cures.
Jobs will be created in development, programming, testing, support, and maintenance, to name a few. Artificial Intelligence architect is one such job. Some say it will soon rival data scientist in need for skilled professionals.
Like AI and Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is another technology that is automating jobs. RPA is the use of software to automate business processes such as interpreting applications, processing transactions, dealing with data, and even replying to emails. RPA automates repetitive tasks that people used to do.
Forrester Research estimates RPA automation will threaten the livelihood of 230 million or more knowledge workers or approximately 9 per cent of the global workforce, RPA is also creating new jobs while altering existing jobs. McKinsey finds that less than 5 per cent of occupations can be totally automated, but about 60 per cent can be partially automated.
The volume of RPA jobs has already grown over fifteen times from 2016 to 2018. Based on the adoption and market growth, demand for Robotics and EPA skills is expected to multiply further in the next two years. Advanced usage of Automation is planned to grow at 100 per cent in Europe by 2020 according to ISG.
Cities are becoming more populated and beginning to undergo digital transformations in order to innovate and move toward becoming a smart city. Building the infrastructure needed for a smart city is resulting in a demand for new job roles with new skill sets.
The world is undergoing staggering urbanisation, at the rate of 10,000 people per hour. By 2050, more than 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities, according to a report from Cisco Systems.
Smart city growth is at a tipping point, and there are plenty of jobs in security, analytics, and IoT that will need to be filled. Cities are becoming “smarter,” and this will spur the creation of thousands of traditional technical jobs. At the same time, new positions will arise that are more of a hybrid of two or more job categories.
To weave technology into the daily activities of companies and citizens, more cities are actively hiring data scientists, cybersecurity pros, network programmers, cloud architects, and platform developers
With a global cybersecurity staffing shortage of 3 million and growing, including a need for 500,000 IT security pros in North America alone, IT security jobs are going to be in plentiful supply again in 2019, and those with the right skills will be able to take their pick.
Data protection rather than intrusion prevention is increasingly becoming a focus if IT security professionals because there is a growing recognition that a security strategy based on “keeping adversaries out” is not practical.
As companies move from focusing on perimeter protection to data-centric security, there will be a need for a large number of people with data protection skills. Overall the employment outlook for IT security professionals of all kinds in 2019 looks extremely rosy, and there may never be a better time to start a career in IT security or to look for a new job to progress up the career ladder.
And since the IT security skills shortage shows no signs of disappearing, the excellent employment prospects for IT security professionals may continue well into the next decade.