AI and Robots Are Coming for Your Job. Here's What You Need to Know

According to the World Economic Forum, advances in technology such as robotics and artificial intelligence will lead to a net loss of 5 million jobs by the year 2020…and that number might actually be on the low-end. Thanks to the exponential nature of technological advances, and a confluence of various keystone technologies improving simultaneously, incredible advances are being made in the fields of AI and robotics that are rapidly chipping away at jobs in various industries. What jobs are at risk? For now, anything that is repetitive (such as factory work and assembly line jobs), low-skill (taxi drivers, janitorial jobs, cashiers, line cooks, etc.), or high-skill but narrow scope (stock brokers, data analysts, certain types of medical professionals, etc.). As an employee, it seems scary, but think of it from a consumer's perspective: perfectly assembled products that cost less, food that is cooked in a clean environment with vastly less risk of food-borne illness, cars that don't kill over 1,000,000 people per year globally, and medical technology that can identify your illness and recommend a treatment plan with greater accuracy than any human doctor ever could.