It’s widely known that increased automation, both through AI and robotics, is going to hit many fields of work. But exactly which roles are likely to be affected remains a subject of considerable discussion.

But according to an IT business expert, automation is not only going to hit certain fields more than others, but also affect certain regions more than others.

“The threat to jobs may not be immediate but if the digital economy continues to grow at its current double digit rate the impact on jobs will occur in three key areas,” said Mark Skilton, Information Systems and Management Group professor of practice at Warwick Business School.

“Firstly, low and semi-skilled work could be squeezed, impacting on the less well-off members of society. We are already seeing this with retail stores automating checkout tills and stock tracking with RIFD tags plus self-service in ordering and sales enquiries.

“Secondly, and less obvious, is the shift and relocation of ‘knowledge’ that smart devices and automated intelligence is driving. Google’s recent restructure into Alphabet, while simplifying the corporate research portfolio, also saw it shift focus to speeding up advances in smart technology, robotics and cars.”

According to Skilton, this shift will have a significant impact not only how wealth is distributed around the world, but how skills are spread, potentially resulting in pockets of the world with good job opportunities while work in other areas remains scarce.

“Apart from the ‘brain drain’ this creates in countries not able to compete with these huge R&D centric companies, it is more the impact on how wealth and skills will be distributed in the global economy and how governments must protect their economies and incomes,” he said.

In recent years technology has also prompted the rise of more informal means of making money, but Skilton warns that while these approaches can be convenient, they are far less secure and so can impact on the financial health of governments.

“Perversely the likes of Uber and Airbnb, in making taxi drivers and hotel operators of us all, on the face of it is creating new jobs, but in reality it is more a sign of the increasing zero-hours contract workforce and the increase in overqualified graduates chasing fewer jobs and lower pay. This has a direct impact on the governments’ tax revenues,” explained Skilton.

There is also a risk to what Skilton calls “untouchable” jobs, thanks to technological developments.

“A final impact is a new ‘arms race’ to develop artificial intelligence for industries ranging from defence to financial and medical research,” he said.

“This could potentially see complex jobs that were once thought untouchable taken over by computers thanks to emerging creative mathematical research and advanced massive scale supercomputing to model human brain function.”

However, while many see trying to stop automation as being as futile as trying to stop the sea rising, Skilton argues that action can be taken to enable automation to improve rather than damage job opportunities.

“It is not all doom and gloom, I think there are several generations of development yet before the physical world of humans is replaced with cyber alternatives, but it is right to consider the ethical and economic repercussions of this inevitable technological scaling of computing,” he said.

“Putting in place controls now could well help economies make sure robots and computers add growth rather than destroy jobs.”