Future of Work

Companies rethink the need to even have offices, or how to redesign places of work. The traditional work shift - 9-5, 5 days a week – is losing relevance. Many companies are adopting the remote work models, spawned by the pandemic, as their new normal. Does the nation need new policies of Guaranteed Basic Income, (UBI) or a drastic rethinking of the social safety nets?

Frontline and service workers have borne the health consequences of the pandemic, increasing racial and economic disparities. Certain robotic and AI applications are accelerating as the value of human workers is further questioned. Determining the likely areas of job growth and training needs is difficult. Post-secondary education has become more virtual and its costs, more controversial.

Today more than 55 million Americans work in the gig economy, which operates through digital platforms like Uber, Lyft and Task Rabbit. Fueled by technological advancements, the gig economy allows workers like Chloe Grishaw to set her own schedule, and know what she’s agreeing to, without any long-term obligations. The freedom and flexibility, however, comes with financial insecurity.

In addition to illuminating the ongoing drivers for disruptions to the world of work – AI, robotics, platform technology, globalization, labor practices -- the pandemic has been a driver of change. Unemployment flipped from lowest in 50 years to highest in a century.

Juan Lopez moved from the military to the oil and gas industry before becoming a wind turbine technician. His path, though not an easy one, is an example of an exciting way to navigate successfully across industries. As this clip shows, working with wind turbines, can be dangerous, but it’s an industry with a future, and Juan knows, if he can keep from getting hurt, he should always have a job.

Alexsandrah Gondora is a human model, but she’s also Shudu, the first world-wide digital model. Camerson-James Wilson works with real models, but recreates the photos he takes in 3D to create digital models, models who don’t get tired, or sick, and can be in many places at one time. But will modelling as an industry be completely replaced by Artificial Intelligence and technology at large?

Since early 2020, the world has been rocked by triple crises: the global pandemic, the ensuing economic disruptions, and the acknowledgement of long-existing racial inequities. With U.S. unemployment sky-high, a majority of Americans are concerned about the future. The usual ladders to security - education, hard work, life-long employment - appear to have broken down.

A.I. Technologist and Entrepreneur, Kai-Fu Lee believes routine jobs will be displaced faster than new jobs will be created in the next 10-15 years. Though we’ll see a net loss of jobs, there will be many jobs invented and created. But how do workers future-proof themselves for jobs that don’t yet exist? What skills will be needed, and is college really worth it?

Technology has completely changed the way that farmers do things today, from the seeds that they plant to the way they drive their equipment. Sarah Lovas’s family has been farming in North Dakota for four generations. Today a farm labor shortage has forced farmers like Sarah to embrace the latest technologies, and agriculture is being digitized.

Each year Americans work longer and take fewer vacation days than others in the developed world. American ‘Workism’, logging long hours with little time off, might inspire people to make amazing things, but at what cost? While the COVID pandemic appears to have accelerated this work drive, and many are working more hours, women have been leaving the labor force in disproportionate numbers.

Tiffany Spraggins decided to go back to college after working jobs with no opportunity for growth. Knowing she wanted to make a livable wage, she started by looking at jobs that paid the salary she wanted. At college, she learned about an apprenticeship program to become a software functions tester, and she’s now on a path to being a full professional in a white-collar job.

Robots are already replacing human jobs. Advocates say they are the jobs people don’t want, but nonetheless, they are paying jobs, and the advent of human-like robots is getting closer as technology advances. AI systems have the capacity to replace humans on a scale never seen before. Should we embrace the future of robots, because it will create jobs that are more meaningful?