It is okay that jobs are being eradicated or threatened by automation and other technologies because a lot of the jobs that people are doing today are not what humans should be doing.
So said Stafford Masie, Thumbzup founder and technology entrepreneur, speaking about the future of work and business at the launch of My Future 4.0.
My Future 4.0 is a digital skills exhibition that will be staged at the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg from 13 to 16 March 2019. The expo aims to showcase next-generation and fourth industrial revolution careers to over 25 000 high school learners, students and young millennials.
With the fourth industrial revolution in sight, there has been growing concerns about the effects of digitisation and automation on the job market both locally and abroad.
An Accenture report released earlier this year revealed that around 5.7 million jobs in SA will be at risk over the next seven years due to digital automation. According to the report, over a third of current jobs in SA are at risk from technologies like robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation.
In addition, the PwC Global CEO Survey indicated that 41% of South African CEOs expect to reduce headcount due to automation and other technologies over the next 12 months.
As a result, there has been a lot of noise that employees need to future-proof their careers in the face of the digital revolution.
Masie argues technology is not something that is going to take over humanity, rather people should embrace it because the promise that technology holds is incredible.
He explains: "Technology takes the stuff away that we shouldn't be doing. The jobs that we do, if measured in efficiency and productivity, a machine will do that job. Machines will always outperform humanity within the context of efficiency and productivity every time.
"Whatever job is measured by those two factors will be eradicated, but that is okay. Humans shouldn't be doing that; that's the stuff the machines should do."
Higher purpose
Explaining the events of previous revolutions, Masie said in the 1900s, the majority of the global population worked in the agricultural sector.
The jobs that people did were horrific, he noted. "In the early 1900s, generally if you weren't doing mining or sweeping chimneys you were working in the agricultural sector.
"Now, less than 1% of the world works in the agricultural sector; yet we have more food than we've ever had in the history of humanity. We eat tropical fruits in the depths of winter. How is that possible? The machines are doing all of that stuff."
Masie continued: "Machines are ploughing the fields. The efficiency that we now see in agriculture due to the introduction of technology means humans do things that cannot be measured in efficiency and productivity in agriculture. Scientific research and artistic expression are the future jobs that make sense."
Humanity gave the agricultural sector its purpose; it gave it its creativity. That expansion delivered more jobs in that sector than ever seen before, he added. "The ecosystem around agriculture employs more people than ever before. It's an incredible sector and delivers more than it ever has. The machines are doing that work and that is not what we are meant to do."
Masie pointed out that every time industries introduce automation, people get perplexed and worried, and children worry that the skillset they learn in school will not be applicable when they exit.
"Technology should take away the mundane work because those jobs are not what humans should be doing. Humans are meant for a higher purpose," he concluded.
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