Technology is certainly changing the nature of jobs and work, and I was quite interested to see some of the statistics and predictions that Gartner presented this week suggesting that even more radical changes are ahead.

By 2025, one out of every three jobs will be converted to software, robots, or smart machines, Peter Sondergaard, SVP and Global Head of Research, said in his keynote speech.

Even sooner, by 2018, digital businesses will require 50 percent fewer business process workers, but yet digital business will drive a 500 percent increase in digital jobs. In other words, the very nature of jobs will be changing, and that has a huge impact on IT hiring, but also on individuals in the workforce.

In that period, the skills that IT departments will be looking for will change dramatically, Sondergaard said. Currently, the most needed skills deal with mobility, improving the user experience, and data sciences. But by 2017 the big skills will focus on smart machines (including the Internet of things), robotics, automated judgment, and digital ethics.

By 2020, there will be a surge in new specialized jobs, he said, with the top skills including integration specialists, digital business architects, regulatory analysts, and risk professionals – as well as a continuing need for lawyers.

Some of this hiring will come in traditional IT departments, but even more may come in different business units within the organization. "The new digital startups in your business units are thirsting for data analysts, software developers, and cloud management staff, and they are often hiring them faster than IT," Sondergaard said. "They may be experimenting with smart machines, seeking technology expertise IT often doesn't have."

In another presentation on smart machines, Gartner's Tom Austin summarized the impact on overall jobs caused by the proliferation of such machines, including physical machines such as autonomous vehicles, smart robots, and machine-focused helpers; and virtual machines, such as personal assistants (like Siri or Google Now), smart advisors (such as Watson), and natural language aides (such as machine translation).

He said he expected the majority of "non-routine careers" – pretty much what we used to call "knowledge workers" – to be impacted as soon as 2020. Some of these jobs will be eliminated, while others will be enhanced or changed.

It's a sobering look – some jobs will be gained, some will be lost, and many will change. This could be among the most substantial direct changes that will impact many of us in the years to come.