Stephane Kasriel, Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Education, Gender and Work, focused on this topic in an interesting article on the WEF website.
He formulated six principles of future work development which we should prepare for so that the 4th Industrial Revolution doesn't bring new work to just a handful of people, but to all of us. In today's article we'll introduce the last three.
4. New jobs will be different and in different places
The number of jobs will gradually increase, but it will be different types of work. In addition, the new jobs are likely to appear in different locations than the jobs replaced by machines, for example outside the current industrial areas.
Again, retraining and adjustments to the education system will be needed to prepare pupils and students for real future work. It will be a new responsibility for countries and companies to create new jobs in the areas where people will be replaced by machines the most.
5. Technology developers will have more responsibility
The development of new technologies has its ethical aspects. Therefore, developers will be more pressured to think about whether what they're doing increases work productivity and people's satisfaction or just blindly replaces people with machines. People aren't just employees but also customers.
This will require expert discussion at national and global levels. One option is to introduce a Universal Basic Income, a system of paying regular cash benefits in the same amount to all people with no conditions.
6. Long-term developments may be positive
Just like our ancestors at the beginning of the 20th century, we can't be sure what the industrial revolution will bring. However, the third industrial revolution, which is already behind us, has resulted in higher productivity and more jobs which are even better than in the past. We can achieve this today too.
As a society, we have to make a commitment to responsible technology development. We also have to be able to capitalize on the prosperity we achieve thanks to technologies.
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