A new study that glimpses into the future shows considerable changes, with some roles disappearing due to technological advances.

Technology is already making massive changes in the way we manage people, as improved reporting is helping HR Managers tackle people challenges more effectively than ever. Whilst technology is likely to overtake human decision making in many key areas, the technology is also expected to create new roles for ‘people-people’, such as Robot Counsellors, Avatar Managers and Mind Reading Specialists.

BrightHR’s ‘A Future That Works’ report – compiled by professor of management practice at London Business School, Lynda Gratton, and futurologist David A.Smith – delved into sectors including communications, robotics, space, environment and medicine to analyse not only how technology is shaping the way we work, but the types of work that will be critical for the future.

The report predicted that middle-skilled roles were the most likely to be phased out due to technological advances, with machines being more up to date than humans. However, it’s not all bad news, with experts claiming that the death of the ‘career ladder’ is giving way to the birth of the ‘career web’ – and they predict a bizarre line-up of brand new roles.

Culturing limbs, designing the weather and counselling robots tend not to feature as part of most people’s average nine to five, however futurist experts, in conjunction with BrightHR, unveiled ‘100 jobs of the future,’ suggesting ‘space architects’ and ‘robot councillors’ may not be as far away from reality as we might think.

From the findings, ten of the most extraordinary future job roles were:

Human to Machine Interface Programmer

Drowned City Specialist

Virtual Lawyer

Avatar Manager

Mind Reading Specialist

Robot Counsellor

Space Architect

Weather Modification Police Officer

Body Part Maker

End-of-Life Planner

In the world of communications, Virtual Clutter Organisers, In-House Simplicity Experts and Machine Linguists appeared amongst the line-up, while in biology and medicine, doctors and scientists were upgraded to Old-Age Wellness Managers, Synthetic Life Designers and Obesity Consultants.

Vertical Farmers, Insect-based Food Developers and Drowned City Specialists featured in the Energy and Environment sector, while in robotics and space, we can expect the workforce of the future to consist of Robot Trainers, Solar Flight Specialists and Spaceport Designers.

While it’s long been the case that machines have taken over repetitive and laborious tasks, one of the more surprising consequences of the impact of advancing technology has been the disappearance of middle-skilled roles.

David A.Smith, futurologist and chief executive of strategic futures and research organisation, Global Futures and Foresight, predicts that in many sectors machines will be better equipped to solve problems than humans:

“As a result of advances in machine learning, the task of interrogating large amounts of data is likely to become fully-automated, making jobs with any systematic component vulnerable. “In fields such as law, accountancy and medicine, machines are likely to produce generally better answers than humans. “While job substitution by machines is alarming for those caught up in it, we know, from experience, that we have always been able to adapt and find new roles for ourselves.”

Professor Linda Gratton of London Business School and The Hot Spots Movement believes this trend is likely to become even more pronounced over time and that employees need to think more creatively about how they achieve career progression.

She said:

“Studies have suggested that a third of jobs in Europe will be replaced by technology over the next two decades. “As middle-skilled roles disappear, workers may find that the ‘rung’ above them no longer exists, and that the career ladder may begin to look more like a career web. “The ultimate implication is that workers cannot now expect to gain seniority by moving ‘up’, but rather moving sideways by gaining additional complex skills.”

With the upward movement of the career ladder so embedded in the psychology of many organisations, this will be a major shift. And it’s not only employees who will be affected.

Professor Gratton added:

“Employers and recruiters too will change the way they find talent, looking to seek the right attributes rather than experience, and empower their workers to become more agile through on-the-job training.”

While it seems the job for life may be dead, the broken career ladder also leads to new opportunities, as ‘100 jobs of the future’ alludes.

CEO and co-founder of BrightHR, Paul Tooth, believes companies will eventually see a breakdown in the traditional structure of people climbing the career ladder, with more businesses adopting a ‘career web’ ethos.