This Monday, World Economic Forum (WEF) advisors Ravin Jesuthasan, Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services, Mercer, and George Zarkadakis, Senior Fellow, GeoTech Centre of the Atlantic Council, posted a report exploring the role of extended reality (XR) technologies in the future of the work. The WEF representatives spoke positively of immersive technologies such as cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the blockchain, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Forum members explained that while Web3 solutions continue to emerge, the Metaverse is "already here." The WEF speaks highly of the Metaverse's prospect of revolutionizing work methodologies. The group also takes intrigue into the ways Web3 and DAO platforms can digitally reconnect businesses and communities.

As many of us have moved to working from home and many companies have decided to keep remote working ... [ ] as a permanent option, the future of jobs looks like it will be increasingly digital but also increasingly focused on wellbeing and self-management. Human skills, not technology alone, will help us through the'double-disruption' of Covid and automation. A new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Future of Jobs has highlighted the need to build on self-management and critical thinking skills, so that we can harness an increase in automation and an impending Covid-triggered recession to usher in a new wave of jobs that take advantage of both automation and human creativity and adaptability. As the pandemic has pushed many people into working remotely and using many different technologies to work and relax, the importance of wellbeing as well as the utility of technology have come into stark focus, and created a unique foundation on which to build new jobs and a new way of working. For many years, automation technologies have been changing how we work, by taking on more of the mundane, repetitive tasks that they are designed for.

Weather wars, authoritarian surveillance, social control, and more are "Future Shocks" that could fundamentally destabilize the world as we know it, according to the WEF. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is currently underway in Davos, Switzerland, but a week before the event, the WEF Global Risks Report 2019 was published identifying weather manipulation tools, social control through biometric surveillance, AI "woebots" that can feed on human emotions, and more as "Future Shocks" that could forever alter the course of human history. "Authoritarianism is easier in a world of total visibility and traceability" The WEF report for 2019 lists 10 "Future Shocks," which are not predictions, but rather "food for thought and action" about current technologies and trends that have the potential to shake up society, for good or ill, in the very near future. Since we at The Sociable like to focus on the technological side of things, especially as how it relates to social impact, let's take a closer look at the Future Shocks that pertain more to technology. "Weather manipulation tools-- such as cloud seeding to induce or suppress rain--are not new" Make no mistake, weather manipulation tools do exist, yet not a single government or group has claimed responsibility for using this technology as a weapon.

Women and men don't hold the same types of AI jobs, either. According to the WEF report, men were more likely than women to hold senior positions, such as software engineer or head of engineering. Women in AI, on the other hand, were more likely to hold lower and less lucrative positions, such as data analyst or researcher. If AI skills increase in demand in the future -- as predicted by the WEF report -- a gender gap in those skills could mean fewer women are able to participate in the economy as a whole. Additionally, the AI industry itself could suffer if the AI gender gap continues on its current trajectory.

Human jobs are in danger as artificial intelligence is ready to take over almost half of our tasks by 2022. As per World Economic Forum's report The Future of Jobs 2018, infusion of new technologies in the system is leading to a complete transformation of how industries around the world function. Robotics and machinery have already started taking over human tasks but AI is far more disruptive. The technology has already started finding applications across business operations in various departments, benefitting the company's productivity. WEF report has suggested that by 2022, "59% of employers will have significantly modified how they produce and distribute by changing the composition of their value chain."

Machines and algorithms in the workplace are expected to create 133 million new roles, but cause 75 million jobs to be displaced by 2022 according to a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) called "The Future of Jobs 2018." This means that the growth of artificial intelligence could create 58 million net new jobs in the next few years. With this net positive job growth, there is expected to be a major shift in quality, location and permanency for the new roles. And companies are expected to expand the use of contractors doing specialized work and utilize remote staffing. In 2025, machines are expected to perform more current work tasks than humans compared to 71% being performed by humans as of now.

Machines will overtake humans in terms of performing more tasks at the workplace by 2025 -- but there could still be 58 million net new jobs created in the next five years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in a report on Monday. Developments in automation technologies and artificial intelligence could see 75 million jobs displaced, according to the WEF report "The Future of Jobs 2018." However, another 133 million new roles may emerge as companies shake up their division of labor between humans and machines, translating to 58 million net new jobs being created by 2022, it said. At the same time, there would be "significant shifts" in the quality, location and format of new roles, according to the WEF report, which suggested that full-time, permanent employment may potentially fall. Some companies could choose to use temporary workers, freelancers and specialist contractors, while others may automate many of the tasks.

Two-thirds of Americans believe that, in 50 years, robots and computers will do much of the work humans now do. The World Economic Forum's 2016 report, The Future of Jobs, estimates that 5 million jobs will be lost to automation by 2020 and that the number will keep growing. Jobs that once seemed like "safe bets"--office workers and administrative personnel, manufacturing, and even law--will be hit hardest, the report estimates. "There are some overarching shifts poised to change the nature of work itself over the next decade," says Devin Fidler, research director at Institute for the Future, a nonprofit research center focused on long-term forecasting. So what do you need to work on to be marketable in 2025?

The World Economic Forum kicks off today, and the theme of this year's gathering of the world's leaders, celebrities, billionaires and the merely wealthy will be what it calls the "Fourth Industrial Revolution." That's its term for the accelerating pace of technological changes, especially those that are "blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres" -- the combination of things like artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and 3-D printing. To go with that theme, the WEF has released research looking at the effect all that change will have on jobs. It projects that by 2020, 7.1 million jobs are expected to be lost, and two million gained, with a net impact of five million jobs lost in the next half decade. "Davos Robot Eclipses Davos Man as Gloom Descends on World Elite," Bloomberg wrote in covering the news of this year's theme, which will be the topic of 20 sessions over the four-day conference.