Work in an automated future

Disruptive technologies are now dictating our future, as new innovations increasingly blur the lines between physical, digital and biological realms. Robots are already in our operating rooms and fast-food restaurants; we can now use 3D imaging and stem-cell extraction to grow human bones from a patient's own cells; and 3D printing is creating a circular economy in which we can use and then reuse raw materials. This tsunami of technological innovation will continue to change profoundly how we live and work, and how our societies operate. In what is now called the fourth Industrial Revolution, technologies that are coming of age--including robotics, nanotechnology, virtual reality, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and advanced biology--will converge. And as these technologies continue to be developed and widely adopted, they will bring about radical shifts in all disciplines, industries and economies, and in the way that individuals, companies and societies produce, distribute, consume and dispose of goods and services.