January 25, 2018
World Economic Forum announces expanded global network to shape policy for Fourth Industrial Revolution
The World Economic Forum has announced an international expansion of its Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The announcement coincides with this week’s Forum at Davos, which you can follow live here. New affiliate Centers will open in India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, creating ‘an international network dedicated to maximising the benefits and minimising the risks of emerging technology’. In cooperation with host governments and private companies, affiliate Centers will aim to build on the work under way in San Francisco to close the perceived gap between emerging technology and policy. The Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution model is to bring together business leaders, governments, start-ups, civil society, academia and international organisations to co-design and pilot innovative approaches to governance for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain.
January 23, 2018
Global economy faces an immediate reskilling problem in the face of automation, claims Davos report
The global economy faces a reskilling crisis with 1.4 million jobs in the US alone vulnerable to disruption from technology and other factors by 2026, according to a new report, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All, published by the World Economic Forum. The report is an analysis of nearly 1,000 job types across the US economy, encompassing 96 percent of employment in the country. Its aim is to assess the scale of the reskilling task required to protect workforces from an expected wave of automation brought on by the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Drawing on this data for the US economy, the report finds that 57 percent of jobs expected to be disrupted belong to women. If called on today to move to another job with skills that match their own, 16 percent of workers would have no opportunities to transition and another 25 percent would have only between one and three matches.
January 12, 2018
The seven must-reads that were on our radar this week
What to do when you’re feeling distracted at work
The essential truths of management books distilled to 25 words
The past and present future of corporate real estate
A new approach to the design of work
How to tackle impostor syndrome in 2018
Managing an integrated government estate: lessons from the UK
Autonomous car hype is way ahead of reality
January 8, 2018
Chinese government to create a $2.1 billion industrial park dedicated to artificial intelligence research
The Chinese government is preparing to build a technology park in Beijing dedicated to research into artificial intelligence, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua and Reuters. The scale of the development can be gauged by the level of investment – some $2.12 billion (13.8 billion yuan) to build the park, located in west Beijing. The park is also forecast to generate revenues of $7.7 billion (50 billion yuan) a year from the 400 enterprises that are expected to be housed there. Zhongguancun Development Group, the developer of the project, will look to partner with foreign universities and build a “national-level” AI lab in the area, according to the reports.
January 5, 2018
Automation will impact low paid jobs first because of the living wage, report claims
The development of the living wage coupled with the growing automation of tasks could create a perfect storm that prices a growing number of people out of the jobs markets, a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies claims. The authors suggest that one of the unintended consequences of the increase of the rate to £8.50 by 2020 could be that people in low paid work could find themselves in competition for jobs with robots and artificial intelligence. The report concludes that there will be a tipping point at which human labour becomes economically unviable, although it does not predict when that will occur.
December 28, 2017
Automation will benefit the economy but many people could lose out
Around a third of all jobs in the UK are vulnerable to the introduction of robots, automation and artificial intelligence and the government must intervene to manage the transition and stop new technology driving up wage inequality, a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims. Although the report suggests that the tech will have a generally beneficial impact on the economy, it warns that lower-skilled jobs are far more likely to be phased out over the coming decades, and only higher-skilled workers would generally be able to command higher wages.
December 5, 2017
Up to 800 million jobs will be displaced by automation over next 13 years, claims McKinsey report
Up to 800 million workers worldwide may find their jobs disrupted and displaced by robots and automation by 2030, around a fifth of the global labour force, according to a new report covering 46 nations and over 800 occupations carried out by McKinsey & Co. The report claims that all countries and nearly all roles will be affected to some degree. Even at the lower end of the forecast, 400 million workers could still find themselves displaced by automation and would need to find new jobs over the next 13 years. According to the study, only 5 percent of job roles consist of activities that can be fully automated. However, in about 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities can be automated, implying substantial workplace transformations and changes for all workers.
November 23, 2017
Support of gender diversity charter to widen digital and tech talent pool
As we reported yesterday there are gender as well as economic imbalances which could cause long term problems for the tech sector. While there is a looming digital skills gap – with the UK needing one million more tech workers by 2020, just one in ten females are currently taking A-level computer studies. Currently only 17 percent of the tech/ICT workforce in the UK are female, well below the 47 percent of women in the workforce overall. To help address the issue, the Tech Talent Charter is a commitment by organisations (including Nationwide, BBC, HP, Monster and Cancer Research) to a set of pledges designed to increase gender diversity in the UK tech workforce. These pledges include inclusive recruitment processes and contributing company employment and diversity data anonymously to be published publically annually. Following yesterday’s budget, the Tech Talent Charter is announcing today that it has received Government funding as it welcomes its 90th signatory.
November 22, 2017
Address gender and economic barriers to tech revolution says BT
Young people from less privileged backgrounds and females face greater barriers to joining the tech revolution, a new report suggests. Tech know-how: The new way to get ahead for the next generation, from BT and Accenture could boost the next generation’s tech skills and help charge social mobility and economic growth. The study found individuals with higher levels of tech know-how earn more as their career progresses, with a ‘tech literacy wage premium’ of £10,000 per year. The implied salary increase if people develop their skills could add approximately £11 billion to UK GDP by 2022. However, young people whose parents have higher levels of education are 26 percent more likely to see themselves as ‘expert’ or ‘creative’ users of tech in the next five years; and those whose parents fall into the top two education levels expect to earn salaries that are 19 percent higher than the bottom two. The report also highlighted a stark gender divide as young men receive 46 percent more encouragement from parents and teachers to build their tech skills than their female counterparts, and are 17 percent more likely to report having had sufficient training at school.
November 20, 2017
Nearly a quarter of UK employees admit to being unproductive at work
Almost a quarter (23 percent) of UK employees rate themselves as ‘unproductive’ at work, equating to seven million of the nation’s total workforce. Perceived productivity slips even further amongst Generation Z employees. When asked to rate their productivity out of ten, with ten being the highest possible number, 28 percent of Generation Z employees gave themselves an ‘unproductive’ score between 0 and 6, compared to the national average of 23 percent. At a time when improving the UK’s labour productivity is high on the agenda, the survey of more than 3,000 UK employees claims there is an untapped opportunity for employers to help boost workforce productivity. However, the research highlights some of the steps businesses can take to increase productivity. This includes both technological, by providing a digital workplace and cultural, by helping to create a successful team environment.
November 17, 2017
Seven stories about people, places and technology we’ve been reading this week
How to navigate beyond sustainability buzzwords
The communist party offices around the world
Hawking’s fear that AI may replace humans altogether
Tech giants are transforming Sydney’s business district
How AI will transform the employee experience
Promotion improves men’s job satisfaction but not women’s
Why we value physical objects over digital
December 13, 2017
The ups and downs of wearables for workplace health and wellbeing
by Lee Sadd • AI, Comment, Technology
Businesses in the 21st century have tried just about everything to improve productivity. For a long time, Google and its ilk were seen as model workplaces, with their open offices and abundance of ball pits and bean bags. Then the consensus shifted, and the cubicle or workstation was seen as the paradigm for employee concentration. Now the focus has shifted to technology, and the field of ‘wearables’. Devices like the Fitbit, Google Glass and Apple Watch have come and gone with significant consumer buzz, but relatively low uptake. What failed to impress consumers, however, may yet have a place in business. For better or ill, it seems the companies we work for are increasingly obsessed with collecting our data.
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