While a majority of urban Indians believe that their jobs will be automated in the coming ten years, they are still of the opinion that robots won’t be able to snatch employment because they are confident of their skills. “A whopping 84% of urban Indians polled are confident of keeping their jobs in the future, riding on skills they possess,” according to WEF-Ipsos’s survey on Global Views on Jobs Automation. In fact, urban Indian youth is the world’s leading population who believe in automation scare, followed by Saudi Arabia where 56% of the populace believes that automation is a danger to employees and China where 55% of the population fears automation.
Not all countries around the world are buying the automation narrative and these markets least expect automation to take over and threaten their jobs. This includes Hungary, Germany, and the Netherlands. Countries like the Netherlands and the United States are also confident that if automation does happen, they will still keep their jobs. On the other hand, Japan, South Korea and Russia are the least confident markets of holding onto their jobs, in the face of automation.
“Indian job market is hierarchy driven — promotions are skills and performance led. And Indians realize that while automation is likely to takeover, at the same time they know it will act as an enabler, to improve efficiencies in deliverability; human intellect, skill sets and capital will still be needed to get the job done,” Parijat Chakraborty, country service line leader, Public Affairs & Corporate Reputation, Ipsos India, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the majority of the routine work done by managers currently is expected to get automated by 2024, according to a study by Gartner. “The role of manager will see a complete overhaul in the next four years,” Helen Poitevin, research vice-president at Gartner, said in a statement. Managers currently do routine work such as filling in forms, updating information and approving workflows. The study, however, does not throw any light on the kind of impact this will have on manager roles and jobs.