Joy Adjutant, Data Trash Engineer, Juvenile Cybercrime Rehabilitation Counsellor, Voice UX Designer, E-sports Arena Builder – these are just a few examples of what professionals will be needed within the next 10 years. Cognizant, the U.S. headquartered and one of the world’s leading professional services companies, released a report on the future of work and proposed 21 new jobs that will enable people to realise their potential and stay employed in the changing job market.

“Although, when we speak about artificial intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we still focus on what jobs will people loose, it is equally important to show the opportunities. It is crucial that both the employers and the educators talk about the future jobs,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asta Radzevičienė, Vice-rector for Strategic Partnership at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) together with representatives from Cognizant Technology Solutions Lithuania, the division of Cognizant in Lithuania, today during the opening of a Cognizant sponsored new student area in VGTU’s Faculty of Business Management.

Ethical behaviours are important not only to humans, but to machines as well

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asta Radzevičienė, the Jobs of the Future report has three areas important for future business – ethics, security and technological advancement. It is very likely that the major change will happen and most of the new professions, which do not exist yet, will be created in the above mentioned areas.

A widely debated Amazon case, when their secret AI recruiting tool had to be cancelled because it showed bias against some candidates, is a good example. In the future, Algorithm Bias Auditor will ensure that the algorithms at the heart of AI are fair, legal and representative of the values of organization. Machine Personality Designers will work on human machine interaction trying to develop for example a robot waiter or a virtual assistant that resembles the character, voice and personal traits of a customer.

The need to feel safe shall also increase; thus, companies shall employ Machine Risk Officers, Virtual Identity Defenders, and the security of a country will be guarded by Cyber Attack Agents. Warming climate and rising seawater levels call for Tidewater Architects, whose primary responsibility will be the overall planning and execution of projects that work with nature – not against it – in cities all over the world.

Some of the new jobs are based on the belief in technological advancement, and their names sound like from fiction books; nevertheless, it is quite likely that in 2029 there will be Flying Car Developers and Smart Home Design Managers.

The robots are here – how do we stay competitive on the job market?

“The job market has always been changing; thus, during the next several decades, the jobs lost due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will be replaced by new ones. The winners of this change will be the ones who are open to new challenges and embrace the new professions. Many of the new jobs do not exist yet, but some of them are starting to gain shape,” says Edita Znutienė, Head of HR Baltics at Cognizant. She says, that in order to stay competitive and to withstand the invasion of robots and artificial intelligence into the job market, we have to be better humans. Machines will never gain certain human traits and will need a human to operate them. It may sound unbelievable, but things that humans are good at will be even more important in a few years. Analytical, communication and learning skills, ability to communicate and work in teams are crucial to every person and every business. To become invincible, we have to work on development of our skills and competences that are insurmountable and are beyond the reach of computers.

VGTU’s Vice-Rector noted that many new jobs will emerge at the junction of several disciplines. “Developers will have to be literate in law, architects – gaming industry, psychologists – the principles of cyber security etc. It proves that the university’s chosen direction towards interdisciplinarity, digitalization and integration of information technologies in all areas of studies is the right choice,” says Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asta Radzevičienė.  According to her, changes are essential not only what students learn, but also how they do it. Now students gain new knowledge and experience by working in teams on common projects, communicating with various people, looking for new ideas and solutions not only to existing challenges, but also for the challenges of the future. That is what the new Cognizant’s student space at VGTU’s Faculty of Business Management will promote.

The Jobs of the Future report by Cognizant is available here.

Source – Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.