Workers '˜must be trained to cope with rise of artificial intelligence'

Businesses and the government must ready the nation's workforce for the rise of artificial intelligence to ensure companies can ride out the 'cliff edges' created by the technological revolution, according to PwC.

By The Newsroom Monday, 3rd July 2017, 7:01 am Updated Tuesday, 18th July 2017, 8:41 am

Experts believe the rise of AI poses a threat to workers across the professions, from staff in fast-food restaurants to doctors. Picture: AP

The professional services firm said AI had the power to overhaul business models and could leave workers sidelined and companies struggling to adjust unless preparations are made now.

It said firms and the state must step up their efforts to improve the education system and help workers retrain to ensure AI delivers the much-heralded boost to the UK economy.

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Jon Andrews, PwC’s head of technology and investments, said: “There are different sectors that will be impacted in different ways.

“The vast majority [of workers] will not see the change happening to them and they will have a very different job by 2030. But some of them you can see coming and you can actually predict the changes.

“If you take the logistics world, there is going to be a period of time as we move towards autonomous vehicles where it will continue to be cheaper to have an old vehicle that is non-autonomous with a person driving it.

“Then all of sudden that will flip and the business case will change and it will be worthwhile making the investment in autonomous vehicles. So we will see a cliff in terms of jobs there going more quickly.

“We need to be prepared as a country on how we re-train people to think what other jobs those people can do ahead of that.

“But that will be largely predictable because you will be able to predict and see that business case changing.”

Experts believe the rise of AI poses a threat to workers across the professions, from staff in fast-food restaurants to journalists, accountants and doctors.

Around 30 per cent of UK jobs are at high risk of being eradicated by AI by 2030, PwC has estimated.

Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates mooted the possibility of creating a robot tax in order to plug the hole in public finances left by the jobs destroyed by automation.

However, the rise of AI – coined the fourth industrial revolution – will also create new roles for human beings and could drive up productivity and bolster economic growth.