C-3P0, the first robot to steal the job of a translator.
C3PO by Nathan Rupert is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Break neck speed advances in technology are having an impact on those in IT. 62% of technology professionals in APAC believe a significant part of their job will be subjected to automation within the next 10 years, rendering their current skills redundant, according to the findings of the Harvey Nash Technology Survey 2017.
62% is far higher than the global average of 45%. In fact, the change in technology has been so quick that 87% believe their career would be severely limited if they do not gain new technical skills.
Intelligent systems
Bart Selman, Computer Scientist, Cornell University commented, "I can envision systems that become better and better at writing software.” He continued, “A person complemented with an intelligent system can write maybe ten times as much code, maybe a hundred times as much code. The problem then becomes you need a hundred times fewer human programmers."
An oft-cited 2013 Oxford study estimated that programmers and software engineers had just an 8% chance of automation in the next 20 years. Selman disagrees. He said that number will end up being much bigger, and we should be ready for it to skyrocket in the future. Of course software engineers are not the only jobs at risk. The Oxford study projected that 47% of all employment in the US is likely to be automated by 2030. Where tech may have been previously regarded as a safe bet now is itself very much a high risk occupation.
Other key findings include:
The most important technologies in the next five years to be Robotics, Augmented / Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Wearable Tech, Big Data, Cloud and the Internet of Things
- AI takes the lead - The Biggest technology growth area is expected to be Artificial Intelligence, with 84% of APAC respondents expecting it to be important to their company in 5 years’ time – a huge leap from the current figure of 31% in the region.
- Where are all the women? 14% of APAC respondents are women, showing next to no growth from the 13% who responded in 2013. The pace of change is glacial and—at this rate—it will take decades before parity is reached.
- The tech community do not trust the cloud, with 40% of respondents stating they have little or no trust in how cloud companies are using their personal data.
- Headhunters radar: Software Engineers and Developers get headhunted the most, followed closely by Analytics/Big Data roles. At the same time 74% believe recruiters are too focused on assessing technical skills and overlook good people as a result.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
