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Probability HR Jobs Will be Lost to Robots in the Next 20 Years?

There's a great article over at The Economist related to robots/technology taking over more and more jobs we associate with people.  Business Insider broke down the probability that different jobs would be taken over by robots in the following graph:

Chart-of-the-day-robots-taking-jobs

So telemarketers are screwed - you probably knew that.  What has to be more suprising to you is that next on the list is a pretty white-collar profession - accounting and auditors.  The smarter technology gets, the more it can adapt on the fly and make good decisions based on scenarios involving natural language interaction, etc.

What about HR?  Will the robots be replacing HR pros left and right?

I've got good news and bad news.  If you dig into the article from The Economist, you'll find that the simplier the scenario and the more solutions are provided according to rules, the more a job can be automated.  I think that means that transactions in HR will be increasingly taken over by tech and ultimately by a smart robot that you love to hate.  Of course, you expect that, right?

What you didn't probably expect is that the next level of HR specialist - think comp and benefits - is probably going to be high on the probability chart you see above.  After all, if the work of accountants and auditors can be taken over by tech/a robot, why would comp and benefits be any different?

Safer in my eyes would be the role of the HR generalist - there's so much gray area in the work of a good HR generalist at any level that I would compare that favorably to a clergy member.  

It's that type of job.  Rejoice HR generalists!  

Comments

Naomi Bloom

Of course, if the workforce is increasingly humanoid robots rather than actual humans, then there won't be nearly the same quantity needed of generalists.

Robbie

I think the idea of robots taking over anything is somewhat of a gimmicky distraction. It's actually computers (that don't look humanoid at all) that have already taken over many roles and will relentlessly continue to do IMHO

Robert

Robots will make life easier but there will be loss of jobs

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