The ecological upside to job automation
Replacing humans with robots clearly has a dystopian flavour. But could the successive waves of artificial intelligence (AI) and other exponentially developing technologies displacing jobs, ranging from banker to construction worker, have potential positives for the environment?
According to a 2016 McKinsey automation study, about a third of most job activities, affecting 49 per cent of the world economy or an estimated 1.1 billion employees and $12.7 trillion in wages, are technologically automatable.
More dramatically, The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Future of Jobs study predicts 3.5 times more jobs lost than created between 2015 and 2020 through labour market disruption – suggesting potential reductions in the associated resource and emissions impacts. The study also estimates that 65 per cent of children entering primary school today would work in job types that don’t yet exist. This implies an as yet unknowable ecological footprint for the more environmentally conscious generations coming into the world of work.
Rethinking the notion of jobs