WHAT WILL THE WORLD of work look like in 2035? From artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in business decision making, remote work , to an augmented workforce, and centralised organisations — these are some of the possibilities of how work will have changed in 15 years, according to a new study on the future of work.
THE STUDY, titled Work 2035: How people and technology will pioneer new ways of working, was carried out by Citrix Systems in collaboration with Oxford Systems over the course of a year. The study is based on a two-part research study combining alternative futures scenario planning and robust opinion research among over 1500 academics, business leaders and employees across the US and Europe. Work 2035 aims to examine alternate versions of the future of work in 2035, and how people and technology will work together to create value.
permanent employees and more on “swarms” of on-demand specialist professionals who will be enhanced with technology. Remote working will be made more effective and efficient by technology tools like virtual reality (VR) which will enable people in different parts of the world to train and collaborate in the same environment. This scenario is informed from data from the survey which showed that 66% of employees and 54% of business leaders interviewed in the course of the study believe that humans with chips embedded in their bodies will have an “ unfair advantage” in the labour market. In addition, 60% of employees surveyed expect that governments, in reaction to a decline in permanent employment, and the rise of on-demand working patterns, will look to regulate labour practices more stringently.
4TH QUARTER 2020
Platform Plugins
SYNAPSE
30
The Platform Plugins scenario envisions work being characterised by replaced workers and distributed organisations. Under this scenario, technologies like AI, machine learning, data capture, and analytics tools will on one hand enable smaller businesses to take on bigger competitors, but on the other hand will enable companies to “drastically downsize” their permanent human workforce. Consequently, specialists — often freelancers — who can build, tweak or check and manage these technologies will be in demand. This scenario is informed from research from the study which showed that 60% of employees believe permanent employees will have become rare by 2035. In addition, 67% of professionals surveys think that by 2035, most high growth companies will operate on a platform model. The study also found that 63% of professionals believe that technology will level the playing field for smaller firms , which will result in niche specialist businesses.
The study identifies four alternative futures of work and imagines how technology will likely change the relationship between people and technology, and how that will influence productivity. The four scenarios identified by the study are: Freelance Frontiers, Platform Plugins, Powered Productives, and Automation Corporations.
Freelance Frontiers
The Freelance Frontiers scenario envisions work being characterised by augmented workers and distributed organisations. Under this scenario, companies will rely less on
Powered Productives
The Powered Productives scenario envisions the future of work being characterised by augmented workers and centralised organisations. Successful integration between humans and technology will see corporations benefit from increased productivity. The integration of tech and humans will also give organisations and business leaders access to more data on their workforces and workplaces. This scenario will see companies who are more successful at integrating humans and technology, and have the most adaptable workers perform better which the study cautions might lead to monopolies in some sectors. Continued on page 33
