Main Story: Is your career ready for the future of jobs?

What will your job look like 10 years from now? Will it even exist in five, 10, or 20 years? And what will happen to the organisation and industry you work for?

That is a question many a career person asks themselves often. Without a doubt, we live in changing, turbulent times. If Covid-19 has shown us anything, it is how fast things can shift leaving us holding to times gone by.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gaining ground in the past few years, and experts say, the career of the future would be very different from what we have today.

"Your job description could be very different – or even irrelevant – in the years to come. And if your skillset or experience fall "behind the times," you will struggle to find work," says Evelyn Kasina, an information technology specialist, and the founder and managing director of Eveminet Communication Solutions.

Robots take over

That technology is taking over our work is nothing new. Estimates show, however, millions of humans will be rendered jobless when robots go mainstream.

Take for example Linda Ntalel who lost her accounting job earlier this year after the company she worked for chose automation.

"It started with downsizing. The management said that its market share had shrunk and some workers had to be declared redundant. Luckily, I survived."

But there was more to the downsizing than just a dwindling market share. Her employer was automating and digitising operations and in the process, jobs were being rendered superfluous. Her luck eventually ran out. "I was told that the firm had taken a new direction, of which my skill set would no longer be needed," says Linda, a certified public accountant, who has risen through the ranks to become a manager.

Kenya's position

Linda's case is not in isolation. The world is embracing Artificial Intelligence at a dazzling speed, and computer systems are now able to perform tasks that would normally be done by people. Kenya has not been left behind. And as more employers automate and embrace AI, jobs will be lost.

As many as 160 million women around the world may have to find another way to earn a paycheck by 2030, new research on the impact of automation suggests.

Clerical tasks will become more automated and given that women fill 72 percent of these positions, McKinsey found, they will be on the losing end. Service industries are also vulnerable, and women make up large percentages of retail and foodservice workers.

The 2019 study by McKinsey Global Institute, found out that in emerging economies, 25 percent of machine operators and more than 40 percent of clerical workers were women. These jobs will be taken over by robots.

Professional women

Professional women are not safe either. According to the 'Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace' report, many careers in customer work, processing, and middle management will be obsolete due to the advent and adoption of artificial intelligence.

"Within the next two decades, half of all jobs will be substantially transformed by technology," reads an estimate from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In August last year, Gloria Mweteri lost her tea picking job after the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) started the introduction of tea picking machines at its factories in Meru County. "I was shocked that the machines were replacing us. Where would I work? I had grown up picking tea on farms. It's all that I knew. How would I educate and feed my two children?" she said.

Model robots

AI has also started to impact the fashion and modeling industry. The industry is shifting from the traditional runway shows to 3-D virtual shows that use virtual models. Take Miquela, an artificial AI-based influencer who is on Instagram under the handle @lilmiquela. She is the perfect example of this shift. She perfectly plans her posts and fashion insights which she shares with her 2.8 million followers.

A spot check reveals that she is designed to have a warm personality. She interacts and responds to her followers' comments and queries. Many blue-chip companies are already using bots as customer care representatives.

"In the future, careers such as teaching might start losing their appeal as learning shifts to AI," says Evelyne.

True to this, the Covid-19 period has introduced our children to online learning. "My 6-year-old was given the assignment to write some kitchen appliances in Kiswahili. I found her asking Google Assistant to translate some appliances for her. In 30 minutes, she had a list of 30 Swahili translations," she says.

"This is the future of education, where automated programs act as teachers. We may not have a national infrastructure to adopt this right now, but we are raising digital natives who are global citizens. They have the opportunity through technology to learn from anywhere in the world," she says.

Impact of AI

Kasina points out that the impact of AI on careers will be similar to the impact Covid-19 has had on jobs and businesses. "Covid-19 greatly disrupted and affected the way we work. Many businesses and career women were not ready for the digital transformation that came with Covid-19. They were forced to innovate. This is what will happen," she says.

Data will be king, especially in finance and healthcare.

James Waititu, the founder and chief executive officer at Mambo Micro-Systems says that AI will be the game-changer in the more effective management of data in these sectors through repetitive learning and automated discovery.

"We will have a higher level of speed and accuracy which humans cannot match," he says. In China, a factory in Dongguan City replaced ninety per cent of its 650 employees with machines. This led to an increase in productivity of up to 250 per cent and a reduction in production defects of up to 80 per cent.

AI for business

This is the same fate that befell Juliet Otieno who was a marketing officer at a Nairobi Securities Exchange investment agency in Nairobi. "My daily tasks involved marketing our securities investments products to potential customers," says Juliet who is 32. She lost her job in May last year after her employer digitised customer relations and marketing services.

Her employer introduced a digitised customer database and an automated program that could send prospective passive investment products to thousands of customers at a go. This resulted in increased customer conversion. "Our social media messaging channels and customer care call desk were also automated into chat boxes that could interact with customers and resolve the majority of investment queries," she says.

In the end, the machines won. Juliet and her team of 10 were set packing. "Only those with additional IT skills were retained," she says.

There is some optimism though. Researchers project 171 million new female-dominated jobs will be created by 2030, with women likely to hold most of the jobs in health care.

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A talk with a career woman in AI

How did you get to be where you are?

I studied Bachelor of Business Information Technology at Strathmore University and did an MBA in Strategic Management at Daystar University. Over the years, I have worked in several tech companies. This has exposed me to the components of the tech industry and the fast-evolving innovations technologies.

Tell us a bit about your role?

My role as the Ambassador for DiGAI involves mentoring young girls who are entering into the world of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. This includes offering mentorship and training.

What are the biggest challenges you've personally had as a woman working in AI?

The world of AI is dominated by men. As such, there is an attitude among some men that women don't belong here. They belong in softer careers such as the front office. When I started working in AI, I was looked down upon and treated like a fragile person. I overcame this by proving that I was not inferior and that my tech skills were better and more efficient.

Why is AI so critical to the career of the modern woman?

In today's world, AI is enabling human capabilities such as planning, reasoning, communication, and perception. These capabilities are being undertaken by software and at very low costs. This means that the automation of these capabilities is bound to create new opportunities in the business sectors and consumer applications. AI will promote revenue growth and improve cost savings in businesses as well. It will also form a basis for better business analysis and enhanced decision making. Before AI goes mainstream, the career woman of today must acquire tech skills that will help her career to adapt. In other words, she must automate her career as well.

We always hear there are not enough women working in tech. What needs to happen to change that?

The tech is hard or tech is for men narrative needs to change. There is nothing under the sun that has been set aside for a particular gender. Women need to be confident and fierce enough to face the world of tech and they would be astonished to see how far they can go. This should begin early on with mentorship to girls to embrace sciences. I also think that employers must start embracing women in tech for the efforts to bear fruit.

What is the greatest transformation in technology you've witnessed in your career?

The use of technology to upscale women in business.

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What to ready yourself for the disruption

1. Equip yourself with computer skills: You can start to familiarise yourself with the latest simple job technologies such as Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams. Check out Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platforms that offer free future-ready courses such as Future Learn, Coursera, and Linkedin which you can utilise to boost your skillset.
2. Social media: Spend time reading on tech trends and aligning yourself with what is highlighted as future opportunities in platforms like LinkedIn.
3. Listening to podcasts: There are several podcasts on the future of work and how to prepare yourself.
4. Networks: Create professional networks and participate in discussions that help you look at work differently.
5. Show relevance: Careers that prove relevance to employers are the only ones that will survive. Start showing relevance in your current position even as you seek to integrate tech into your profile.
6. Tech improvement: Participate in all technological improvement programs and sessions at your workplace.
7. Think widely: Start thinking outside the box on ways to survive the AI disruption just as you did to survive the corona disruption.

The top 10 jobs of the future

These are some of the top 10 jobs of the future:

1. Machine learning analysts

2. Medical practitioners (Doctors, therapists, and nurses) and AI-Assisted healthcare technicians such as biomedical engineers.

3. Financial wellness coaches

4. Psychologists

5. Artists, musicians, and actors

6. Software application developers

7. ECDE teachers

8. Business, marketing, financial analysts

9. Legal practitioners (Lawyers)

10. Construction supervisors