Will your job disappear with the advent of AI by 2030?

As I write this blog, I wonder whether my job as a business writer will be overtaken in the future by software programs.

Already, the job of business analysts and financial report writers is in jeopardy. Quarterly reports can now be sipped out of annual or quarterly results of companies by software scripts and apps.

Machines are useful to man in a way that they can make his life easier, do repetitive tasks with accuracy and free up his time to let him find his true purpose.

An automated drill can unscrew faster than a human, for instance.

They should be deployed in doing dangerous and dirty tasks such as cleaning the windows of a skyscraper or clearing a gutter. But when it comes to deploying them in places where humans work will we see a social impact.

While visiting a few McDonald’s outlets in Australasia, I was surprised to see only 2–3 people manning the entire outlet.

Often there was nobody at the cashiers. So how do they process orders? McDonalds’ has put up touchscreens (a kind of Microsoft Surface) where it displays the food menu and the specials on offer.

Select your order on the screens, a touch of your credit card on the PoS machine, and you’re done. Queues of customers, as a result, have vanished.

For the less tech-savvy customers, there is a scant staff to take orders.

If you’re employed at a quick service restaurant outlet, your job certainly could be at risk of getting wiped out.

In the retail sector, where offerings are standardized such as buying milk or a biscuit off the shelf, retail staff would actually not be needed.

If you work as a cashier, you would do good by upgrading your skills.

Amazon Go, kind of outlets where you can just pick up and walk off the supermarket are coming up soon.

The debate between machines versus humans is not new. There are already a lot of jobs that have disappeared in the last two decades. You don’t need a large amount of ticket checkers and bus conductors. The RFID tokens on subways or apps with QR codes just do the job of allowing entry and exit.