Engineering news

Robots to take over 'nearly half' of UK manufacturing jobs by 2030 24 Mar 2017 Tanya Blake

Up to 30% of jobs in the UK will be done by robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the early 2030s, with manufacturing and transport sectors to be the hardest hit, according to new data.

Financial consultancy company PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC) found that the impact of automation will vary significantly across industry sectors over the next 15 years: transportation and storage (56%), manufacturing (46%) and wholesale and retail trade (44%) face the highest risk of job losses.



Meanwhile, education, health and social work look set to be at the lowest risk, which PwC said is because of the amount of complex tasks involved in these kinds of jobs, which would make them hard to automate.



John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, said that the industry-level estimates are so high because manual, routine tasks are “more susceptible” to automation than jobs involving social skills. “That said, no industry is entirely immune from future advances in robotics and AI,” added Hawksworth.



PwC’s UK Economic Outlook report looked at the range of jobs in different industry sectors and occupations using machine learning techniques to model the potential impact of AI in the future based on OECD data.



On average, PwC estimates that a higher proportion of male jobs (35%), particularly those of men with lower levels of education, are at higher potential risk of automation than female jobs (26%). This is because there is a larger amount of men working in transportation and manufacturing sectors.



However, PwC stressed that in many cases “the nature of jobs will change rather than disappear”. The company said that new AI-related technologies will also boost productivity and generate additional jobs elsewhere in the country.



This will raise the need for people to re-train and learn new skills – but the report states this could widen the gap between rich and poor. PwC said this could happen if a “greater proportion of the economic pie” goes to those with the means to gain knowledge and skills needed to thrive in an ever more digital economy.



Jon Andrews, head of technology and investments at PwC, said potential gains from automation should be “shared more widely across society” so no one gets left behind. He also stressed the responsibility that employers have to prepare staff for change and encourage “flexibility and adaptability”.



“In the future, knowledge will be a commodity so we need to shift our thinking on how we skill and upskill future generations,” said Andrews. “Creative and critical thinking will be highly valued, as will emotional intelligence.”



He stressed that life-long learning and a positive attitude to embracing change will need to be a “fundamental aspect” for the UK’s future success.



The government’s digital strategy “acknowledges the challenges and is a step in the right direction” added Andrews.



Tim Carling a director at major recruitment firm Matchtech told PE that he is seeing “significant increases” in demand for AI and automation specialists among employers in the engineering technology sector.



However, he stressed that the impact is not a negative one. “We see people remaining at the core of the autonomous advances with jobs changing as opposed to disappearing,” said Carling.



In the most recent Matchtech Voice of the Workforce report, which surveys 2,500 engineering professionals from around the world, a third of those survey believed that the company they worked for “embraces new technology and uses it to its advantage”.



Keeping pace with technology, was seen to be a “potential disruptor to the industry” by a quarter (25%) of engineers. MatchTech said it was positive that organisations are “embracing new technology to stay ahead of the game”.