How soon will financial advisors be taken over by robots? A study out of the U.K. makes some predictions.
Are you about to lose your job to a robot?
Maybe sooner than you think, according to a University of Oxford study out of the U.K., which determined there to be a 58 per cent probability that the personal financial advisor will be fully automatized over the next decade or two.
Considering 702 U.S. occupations, the study found that about half (47 per cent) of U.S. workers – ranging from lawyers and real estate agents to security guards and cab drivers – risk losing their jobs to mobile robots with wired intelligence.
The study – authored by Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne – came to these conclusions by taking 70 of the designated jobs and classifying them as possible or impossible to computerize. The data was then fed to an algorithm, which analyzed the criteria behind the ability to automate a job, then predicted the possibility for the 632 remaining vocations. The higher the percentage, the sooner computers or robots will be able to take over from human workers.
“My initial reaction was, wow, can this really be accurate?” Frey told Bloomberg news. “Some of these occupations that used to be safe havens for human labor are disappearing one by one.”
Results of the study – released last September – varied with loan officers and receptionists/information clerks on top at 98 per cent and 96 per cent probability respectively, while physicians and surgeons, and elementary school teachers the least likely to be taken over, both at 0.4 per cent. Other occupations that seem to in the clear include those that require social and creative skills such as choreographers (0.4 per cent) and art directors (2.3 per cent); mental health workers (0.3 per cent) and nurses (0.9 per cent).
As Frey points out, the one aspect saving human workers from losing their careers to technology is cost. Employing low-wage workers – another threat in and of itself – will likely remain more affordable than robots for some time, he says. But if you want to prep yourself in advance, perhaps get back into the classroom. “It’s a race between technology and education,” Frey told Bloomberg.
Related stories:
Toronto advisors facing 'Robo-advisors' challenge
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Get over it and get connected
Maybe sooner than you think, according to a University of Oxford study out of the U.K., which determined there to be a 58 per cent probability that the personal financial advisor will be fully automatized over the next decade or two.
Considering 702 U.S. occupations, the study found that about half (47 per cent) of U.S. workers – ranging from lawyers and real estate agents to security guards and cab drivers – risk losing their jobs to mobile robots with wired intelligence.
The study – authored by Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne – came to these conclusions by taking 70 of the designated jobs and classifying them as possible or impossible to computerize. The data was then fed to an algorithm, which analyzed the criteria behind the ability to automate a job, then predicted the possibility for the 632 remaining vocations. The higher the percentage, the sooner computers or robots will be able to take over from human workers.
“My initial reaction was, wow, can this really be accurate?” Frey told Bloomberg news. “Some of these occupations that used to be safe havens for human labor are disappearing one by one.”
Results of the study – released last September – varied with loan officers and receptionists/information clerks on top at 98 per cent and 96 per cent probability respectively, while physicians and surgeons, and elementary school teachers the least likely to be taken over, both at 0.4 per cent. Other occupations that seem to in the clear include those that require social and creative skills such as choreographers (0.4 per cent) and art directors (2.3 per cent); mental health workers (0.3 per cent) and nurses (0.9 per cent).
As Frey points out, the one aspect saving human workers from losing their careers to technology is cost. Employing low-wage workers – another threat in and of itself – will likely remain more affordable than robots for some time, he says. But if you want to prep yourself in advance, perhaps get back into the classroom. “It’s a race between technology and education,” Frey told Bloomberg.
Related stories:
Toronto advisors facing 'Robo-advisors' challenge
Advice beats the latest tech gadget: BMO survey
Get over it and get connected
