While many companies are hiring data scientists and other types of analytical and artificial intelligence talent, there is little consensus within and across companies about the qualifications for such roles. The term data scientist might mean a job with a heavy emphasis on statistics, open-source coding, or working with executives to solve business problems with data and analysis. The idea of data scientist "unicorns" who possess all these skills at high levels was never very realistic. As the job has grown more popular and sought-after, an increasing number of professionals have begun to use it to describe their role. Colleges and universities have responded to the demand as well by offering hundreds of new programs on data science and analytics.

Modern technology creates fantastic opportunities. It provides more space to do more interesting and exciting things with less time on tasks that are routine and repetitive. Sure, it poses a challenge for all of us to be relevant, but wasn't that true at any point in history? Or rather... what has changed already? It is a popular statement that now every firm is a software company.

REUTERS/Joshua RobertsAn engineer makes an adjustment to the robot "The Incredible Bionic Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington October 17, 2013. It's the latest in a series of figures economists have released projecting the impact that AI systems and machines will have on the human workforce, and this one, from the World Economic Forum, predicts a "Fourth Industrial Revolution," characterized by unprecedented "developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and biotechnology." And while previous industrial revolutions have catapulted the human workforce forward, this one may set us back -- at least in the short term. According to the researchers at the WEF, "current trends could lead to a net employment impact of more than 5.1 million jobs lost to disruptive labor market changes over the period 2015–2020." The Forum estimates that a grand total of 7.1 million jobs will be lost as a direct result of many of our proudest innovations, and that two-thirds of these jobs will be "concentrated in the Office and Administrative job family."