The future of work is evolving at a faster pace than ever before and is going to look very different from what it is now.

Advancement of Technology, connected world, social, mobile, analytics, cloud (ISMAC) has hastened the pace of disruption.

• Voice recognition technologies have advanced so far that they will recognize your voice from as far as 6 meters.
• Amazon and other e-commerce companies will deliver your orders thro’ drones. Self-driving autonomous cars will take over Uber & Ola. You will be able to print your favorite products using 3D from the confines of your home.
• You can visit any place in the world from the comfort of your home but still have an immersive real-life-like experience using Virtual Reality and enhanced by Augmented Reality.
• Bots augmented reality, smart products will become part of our daily life.

It’s not going to be disrupting our personal life but will extend to our work life as well. Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri will start to invade the office space and replace your Secretaries, Call Centre Agents, Technical Support Agents at Level 1 or even Level 2.

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotics, Chatbots, Sentiment analysis, Virtual Reality, Natural Language Processing, Facial Expression analysis, and other technologies will assist HR and leaders in the decision process with speed, accuracy, reliability, and in real-time. It will free up the bandwidth for ordinary professionals and help them to move up the value chain. It will augment the human capabilities never seen before. It will make us become Super Humans.

We all may feel comfortable and secure in our job at the current moment. But wait, McKinsey published a report stating that 45% of all current tasks could be automated with present technology.

• Supermarkets are replacing check-in counters and cashiers with self-check-in counters and automated cashiers
• Airports are encouraging self-check-in and drop-off, doing away with physical counter assistants to enable your check-in process.
• Restaurants are implementing Robotic delivery systems, where Robots will replace waiters, take your order, deliver your order, and cater to your needs.
• Physical Banks will be reduced by 60% in the next 10 years and everything will be online and self-assisted.

• Stockbrokers & financial advisers will be replaced by AI-based Stock Bots that will give your trading tips and manage your finance intelligently.
• AI-based bots will replace Lawyers in preparing your legal battle.
• Robotic-based surgeries and medical assistance will become the most preferred choice for 75% of the patients.
• Bots could well be your next Teacher / Professor
• Screening, scheduling, and Level1 interviews will now be automated and Bots will replace Recruiters
• AI-based crawlers will replace journalists and deliver real-time news
• AI written content will replace authors and biographers in the future
• You can play chess, poker, tennis, etc with Bots on online computer games and will possibly never win.

Technology has enabled organizations to leap forward in terms of productivity, requiring fewer people and producing more. One report suggests that while 80 million jobs will be lost due to digital disruption, 95 million new jobs will be created at the same time.

The nature of jobs, skill sets will change. 40% of the current skills will be outdated and will have to be replaced with newer skills that didn’t exist a few years before. That means employees have to continuously upgrade their skills or become unemployable in the market. You can become irrelevant in your organization and the job market even before you can realize it.

But in the midst of all these doomsday predictions, there’s actually a way to leverage technology before it leverages you.

You need to first acknowledge that change is approaching and adopting the right mindset to prepare for the change. It also requires one to learn continuously and constantly upgrade one’s skills. For some these digital disruptions and technologies may be seen as a threat, but for many others, they may present an opportunity to learn new things and enjoy a new way of life. One needs to stay relevant in the current situation.

It’s time to start learning and realize that it presents you with an opportunity for Growth.