Agile workforce need for future job market, Abu Dhabi forum told

Agile workforce need for future job market, Abu Dhabi forum told

Author: Wed, 2019-12-11 21:35

DUBAI: Governments need to ensure that they have an agile workforce to take on the jobs of tomorrow, the UAE's minister of state for artificial intelligence (AI) said on the second day of the SALT conference in Abu Dhabi.

Omar Sultan Al-Olama did not mince words while talking about the future of the job market, during a discussion on "The implications of advanced AI.“ He said: "Some people will be optimized by AI, and others will be replaced by it.“

Fields such as law, medicine and diagnostics will be significantly impacted by technology in the next five years, he added.

Citing a report by the Institute for the Future, a Dubai-based think tank, he said 85 percent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 do not exist today.

As debate rages worldwide on whether AI is stealing or creating jobs, Al-Olama said technology will help improve and create jobs rather than displace employees.

As a case in point, he cited the launch of ATMs in the US in 1985, when the number of bank tellers was 485,000.

By the time the number of ATMs had risen to 352,000 in 2002, many people expected to see a drop in the number of tellers. Instead,