Presentation Overview

Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines

Professor Thomas H. Davenport

Many economists have all but ceded many middle and lower-skill jobs to automation, but high-end knowledge workers have always been deemed safe from automation-driven job loss. The rise of analytics and other decision-oriented technologies, however, is beginning to put those roles at risk as well. In this presentation Tom Davenport will describe which types of jobs are most at risk, and over what timeframe potential disruptions in knowledge work might take place. Most importantly, he will argue that there are ways that knowledge workers can make it likely that their work is augmented by technology rather than fully automated by it.