--- title: "Key Insights: Expert Views on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs" description: "Experts in fields ranging from computer science to marketing to social science share their insights on what future impacts AI/robotics will have on jobs" date: "2014-08-06" authors: - name: "No Author" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/06/key-insights-expert-views-on-artificial-intelligence-robotics-and-the-future-of-jobs/" categories: - "Future of Work" --- # Key Insights: Expert Views on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs [![Future of jobs](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/07/PI_14.08.06_FutureQuote_Webb.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/?attachment_id=11719) [AI] **Overview** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8" text="I love donuts"]Experts say automation and intelligent digital agents will permeate vast areas of our work/personal lives by 2025[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]52% of experts say tech advances will NOT displace more jobs than they create by 2025; 48% say they will[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Many experts fear that the workforce is not being adequately prepared for tech changes on the horizon[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Experts see tech changes resulting in new skills being valued, and a rethinking of the concept of work[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Technological advances will change the industrial age notions of what a “job” is, experts say[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“When the car was introduced, buggy whip makers went out of business. It will ever be so.”—Penn State professor[/tweetable] **How fast is change coming?** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Many experts see advances in AI and robotics pervading nearly every aspect of daily life by 2025[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“The penetration of AI and robotics will be close to 100% in many areas”— Marc Prensky[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]By 2025 “All the fundamentals of life can and will be automated, from driving to grocery shopping”—@nilofer[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Self-driving cars seem very likely by 2025”—@vgcerf[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Robots/AI will start to become “background noise” in peoples’ daily lives—@cascio[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“The degree of integration of AI into daily life will depend very much, as it does now, on wealth”—Bill Woodcock[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“We’re still a very long way from ‘AI’ as generally seen in the movies, i.e. humanoid robots”—@sethfinkelstein[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Automated cars will not make it into use—this is way harder than anybody is letting on”—a business professor[/tweetable] **Reasons for optimism about the impact of technological change** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Experts say tech advances will displace certain types of work, but historically they’ve been net creator of jobs[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Historically, technology has created more jobs than it destroys”—@vgcerf[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Every wave of automation and computerization has increased productivity w/o depressing employment”—@MichaelKende[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]A new wave of innovations and jobs will be created from the need to code/build new high tech tools—@MichaelKende[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"].@markoff wonders, who would’ve thought SEO would be a significant job category 15 years ago?[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]By 2025, “there is likely to be more human-robot collaboration,” says @MarjorySB[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“For all the automation and AI, the ‘human hand’ will have to be involved on a large scale”—David Hughes[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“An app can dial Mom’s number and even send flowers” but it can’t emotionally connect with her—@mediapsychology[/tweetable] [![PI_14.08.06_FutureQuotes_Boyd](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/08/PI_14.08.06_FutureQuotes_Boyd2.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/pi_14-08-06_futurequotes_boyd-3/) **Concerns about the impact of high-tech advances** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Experts’ concern about tech advances: Automation has hit blue collar employment; white collar jobs will be next[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Automation is Voldemort: the terrifying force nobody is willing to name”—@jerrymichalski[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Tech advances and jobs—“There is great pain down the road for everyone as new realities are addressed”—Mike Roberts[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Everything that can be automated will be automated.”—@cybertelecom[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Robots and AI threaten to make even some kinds of skilled work obsolete (e.g., legal clerks)”—@tomstandage[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Tech will create new jobs, but there’ll be “losses in middle and gains of terrible jobs at the bottom”—@bjfr[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Vytautas Butrimas expects social unrest between 2020 and 2025 because of jobs displaced by technology[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Skills needed to manage the AI will be highly specialized and out of the reach of 95% of people”—software engineer[/tweetable] **The challenge of being ready for change** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"].@geoffliving on the impact of AI/Robotics: “The technology may be ready, but we are not—at least, not yet.”[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Only the best-educated humans will compete with machines” in the workplace—@hrheingold[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"].@BryanAlexander thinks the education system is not well positioned to shape grads to “race against the machines”[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"].@halvarian sees a future w/ fewer jobs due to tech advances but more equitable distribution of labor/leisure time[/tweetable] **Challenges for policymakers ** - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Experts say without policy shift, automation threatens to increase both unemployment and income inequality[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]“Just because there’s a technology that exists to replace jobs doesn’t mean it has to be adopted”—Ben Fuller[/tweetable] - [tweetable url="http://pewrsr.ch/1rN9ta8"]Decisions about using tech surrogates will be driven by culture/politics as much as practicality—@jonl[/tweetable]