What our children’s future jobs may entail and what they think of them.
What may seem like small innovations today will potentially affect the jobs our children will have in the future. From drones to robots, technological innovations are creating new jobs and reinventing others. McKinsey recently forecasted 6 new and reinvented jobs that our children may have in the future. Some I found fascinating; others didn’t seem that much different than what’s happing today. To get a better perspective, I asked my son, Kayan, a 7th grader at Pinewood Middle School located in the Silicon Valley what he thought.
1. Retail Innovations Designer
Concept: if you love playing video games, you may love building the stores of the future. Think interactive displays, virtual consultations with avatars and easier ways to find what you are looking for.
Kayan’s take: Will stores even exist in the future? Why couldn’t I just do all those things online and use VR to “visit a store?” I remember Samsung had tried this where you could try on clothes virtually but I think it needs to be easier and across all the cool brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma and stuff like that. Also, it would be awesome if I could shop on places like YouTube or TikTok at stores built by the content creators and influencers I follow and trust.
My Take: Good point and great ideas. Let’s change that to “Virtual Retail Experience Designer.”
2. Digital Tailor
Concept: Help people find their perfect clothes when buying clothing online
Kayan’s take: Can’t they just use an app for that and a gaming console or scale that you would stand on to get your size? My phone opens using my face, so couldn’t they use the same technology to map by body and feet. Also, to my point before, I’d rather be advised by the content creators I like.
My take: Oh my, ok, good point. Let’s update this one to “entrepreneur and engineer that uses AI and invents a wearable or virtual scale that make online shopping easier while standardizing sizing across brands.” Plus, the ability to create stores anywhere and within any app.
3. Garbage Designer
Concept: Take the world’s garbage, manufacturing leftovers and waste and create new things
Kayan’s take: I like this one. Does this mean I could take leftover soda cans and make it into a solar-powered car or take ocean trash and plastics to make shoes? If so, I’m in. I feel like we could use the waste that’s ruining our planet and oceans to make things.
My Take: This is an opportunity to push what’s possible in nanotechnologies and find ways to produce renewable energy, clean water and reusable goods.
4. Drone Traffic Controller
Concept: Create traffic control programs, and new technology that allows drones to deliver everything from medicines to packages.
Kayan’s take: Cool, can I build a drone that will transport people too? I hate traffic. If Uber can pick me up in car, can’t they pick me up in a drone too? I don’t think we need cars anymore anyways and if we do, can’t we just share them especially with the people that need them most?
My take: Yes! And, imagine the opportunity to use AI to direct autonomous vehicles that drive and fly to learn better routes, avoid traffic and get you what you need, when you need it. This includes the delivery of medicines in rural areas to people in dense urban areas. I agree, we don’t need to individually own cars. 90% of the time they are parked somewhere taking up space. And, you are right, this is an opportunity to mobilize communities and people who couldn’t afford cars and have traditionally relied on unreliable and general-destination public transportation. With solar energy and electric shared vehicles plus pick-up services like Uber, we could be serving a wider range of destinations and people.
5. Precision Pharmacist
Concept: Instead of bulk and generic pharmaceuticals, imagine technology that can custom produced medicines to solve a patient’s specific issue.
Kayan’s take: I like this idea but think it would be really cool if Doctors could do this too and could use a machine to figure out what’s wrong with someone immediately. The hard part is I don’t think doctors have time to see every patient and with virtual appointments, it’s really hard to get diagnosed. Remember when I had a bad cold last year but couldn’t see a doctor in person? That was awful.
My take: This could be AI and machine learning at it’s best. The healthcare industry needs the ability to find real-time correlations by searching a repository of data to identify similar patient patterns in order to treat and prescribe even more effective treatments. You are right about the amount of time doctor’s spend with patients. In 2020, The Annals of Internal Medicine Study found that doctors spend only about 16 minutes per patient. Trust in the healthcare industry is also declining per Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer. It indicates that our trust is at record lows and that most people believe we need to improve our healthcare system.
6. Digital Currency Advisor
Concept: A financial adviser for cryptocurrency
Kayan’s take: Is this like Wall Street for Bitcoin? That could be interesting but I’m not sure I completely understand what Bitcoin is and what I can use it for.
My take: Financial literacy should be a basic right and something that should be taught in schools. Cryptocurrency is complicated for most of us and we will need everyone from advisors to teachers to help us understand it’s future and why it matters.
What would your kids say about the six future jobs listed above? Do they want any of these jobs and, if not, what would they invent or do?
