AI & RPA Will Absolutely, Positively Threaten Your Job

If that headline fails to get your attention, there's nothing about artificial intelligence (AI) or robotic process automation (RPA) that will shock or scare you. Will AI and RPA take your job and kill your career? It depends on what you do for a living, how old you are, where you live and your educational credentials. If you perform routine tasks or even what appear to be complex deductive inferential tasks we associate with "knowledge" industries, yes, your job and career are at significant risk: AI and RPA will absolutely, positively threaten your job, your career and your very professional existence. It would be naïve and irresponsible for me to say otherwise – just as it was naïve and irresponsible to tell horse breeders and coach manufacturers that automobiles were no threat at all, or minicomputer manufacturers that desktop computers would not threaten their markets – because, you know, "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." Let's also not believe for a moment that automation and low-level AI – combined with lower global labor costs – have been quiet over the past couple of decades.