Job seekers' alert! Here's what will help you survive amid challenges from automation, AI

The workspace is changing drastically and very soon there will be just two types of people ? employable in the augmented workplace and unemployable, a senior official at tech giant Oracle said.

While automation will eliminate some jobs, it will also create some jobs that will support the "automation economy". Image source: Reuters

The workspace is changing drastically and very soon there will be just two types of people employable in the augmented workplace and unemployable, a senior official at tech giant Oracle said. Besides, he said, there is a dichotomy emerging in today's workplace -- automation is taking up the repetitive jobs, which in turn means fewer jobs, while companies are struggling to get key talent for specialised jobs.

On the other hand, tech experts maintain that though this trend is yet to take off in India, artificial intelligence has started featuring dominantly in HR conversations and while terms like AI, chatbots and machine learning may sound intimidating, these technologies will not remove humans from the workplace. While automation will eliminate some jobs, it will also create some jobs that will support the "automation economy".

"Employees need to be more intuitive, irrespective of organisation function, more creative in the work they are doing," Shaakun Khanna, Head of HCM Applications, Asia Pacific, at Oracle told PTI "The world will just have two types of people ? employable in the augmented workplace and unemployable," he added. Khanna further said that the workforce needs to be equipped with multiple skill sets and even multiple career transitions if need be. Employees who are not upskilling themselves are facing the brunt of the situation.

According to FICCI-Nasscom & EY report by 2022, 9 per cent of the country's 600 million estimated workforce would be deployed in new jobs that do not even exist today, while 37 per cent will be in jobs which have radically changed skill sets. It highlighted the impact of globalisation, demographics, and exponential technologies on job landscape by 2022. According to PeopleStrong CEO and founder Pankaj Bansal, there will be a visible change in the next three-four years and the first major effects will be seen in the sectors like manufacturing, IT and ITeS and security services and agriculture.

"We predict that by 2021, four out of every 10 jobs globally would be lost because of automation. And of these, one in every four will be from India. That sums up to 23 per cent of job loss in India," Bansal said. About 7 lakh low-skilled workers in IT and BPO industry in India are likely to lose their jobs to automation and artificial intelligence by 2022, a report by US-based research firm HfS Research said last year.

Asked as to what employees should do to make themselves relevant, Oracle's Khanna said: "The workforce needs to be equipped with multiple skill sets and even multiple career transitions if need be. Employees who are not upskilling themselves are facing the brunt of the situation". To keep its staff relevant in this transitioning world Oracle has moved all its enterprise applications to the cloud to provide unparalleled employee experience, he said.

"This allows our people to learn new skills, collaborate in newer ways and most importantly stay relevant in the ever-changing world of work", he said. He further said that Oracle has an annual R&D spend of USD 6 billion and integrates modern technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) and so on in all its enterprise applications.

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