If you read almost any article about the future of the accounting industry, you might be inclined to make a dramatic career shift. The statistics point to massive technological change. According to findings from a 2017 PwC study, 40% of the accounts payable process can be automated; other findings show that accounting and bookkeeping jobs are at the highest risk from digital disruption in the next 20 years. On its surface, this data might lead you to assume that AI and automation are like ruthless villains coming for our jobs. But the outlook doesn't have to be bleak.

The current wave of artificial intelligence (AI) works by using computer models to simulate intelligent behavior. Machine-learning algorithms are good at learning new behaviors, but bad at identifying when those behaviors are harmful or don't make sense. Companies deploying AI will need a workforce trained to ensure that the technology remains both useful and safe. AI at DXC: Artificial Intelligence is any program that does something that we would think of as intelligent in humans. AI is often based on machine learning and can produce unexpected results.

In my previous article, I wrote about the impact of Robotic Process Automation which drives Enterprise AI. In that article, I said: The first group of workers to feel the impact of RPA and AI as described above will be offshore workers (including offshore developers). Here is an extended prediction to that theme ...In 2018 AI will start to bring jobs back from offshore destinations to the West Before we proceed, the views expressed in this article are personal. They do not reflect the views of any organization, institution or company I have worked with. Also, I have not been involved in the IT Offshore services business (either as a customer or as a provider).

The meaning of "work" is changing, and with life expectancies growing, the gig economy taking hold and artificial intelligence taking plenty of people's jobs, millennials will have careers that are worlds away from those of their forebears, says Dr. Linda Sharkey, global managing director of the consulting firm Achieveblue Inc. Sharkey is the author of "The Future-Proof Workplace: Six Strategies to Accelerate Talent Development, Reshape Your Culture and Succeed with Purpose," co-written with Morag Barnett, the chief executive of the business management consultancy SkyeTeam. She talked to International Business Times about the prospects for 21st-century careers, the falling value of a four-year degree and the idea that a robot might be conducting this sort of question-and-answer article in the not-so-far-away future. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. One issue you touch on in your book is your expectation that retirement will cease to be a 21st century phenomenon, and that today's young workers are more likely to take sabbaticals than end their careers by their late sixties. Is this something you think will be born of choice -- a desire to work longer -- or a consequence of the unsustainability of Social Security as generations live longer and have fewer children?