In a world of increasing global connectivity, market competition, and automation, a premium will exist for skills that facilitate quick and adaptive responses to unfamiliar circumstances.

 

As everyone and everything becomes more connected, the result is not just that we can do things faster, cheaper, or better. Rather, it is that the whole system becomes highly unpredictable—a change in one node will resonate throughout the whole. As the labor market continues to be defined by volatility, unpredictability, and complexity, workers will be even more frequently called upon to respond to novel and unexpected situations.

 

At the same time, smart machines will soon largely displace humans from tasks that are repetitive and mechanistic—tasks in which humans imitate machines and tasks that aim for scale and consistency of production. This will be true not just for manual manufacturing labor but also for white-collar and service work aimed at achieving grand scale. For tasks ranging from hammering nails on an assembly line to repeatedly answering the same question, humans simply will not have a competitive advantage over machines.

 

With the introduction of more technological instruments, software, and other programs into the workforce, tasks have become increasingly cognitive and less physical for humans. In addition, these cognitive tasks often require more than the work of an individual, and rely instead on whole teams to complete an assignment. At the same time, as individuals become progressively specialized, their expertise often does not extend beyond disciplinary or domain boundaries. Given these and other constraints, the novel and adaptive thinking skills used by teams and even human-synthetic teams will become increasingly important for the workplace.

 

Fidler, D. (2016). Future Skills: Update and Literature Review. Retrieved July, 2018

http://www.iftf.org/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/wfi/ACTF_IFTF_FutureSkills-report.pdf