5 Jobs that will be obsolete by 2030

Back in 2017, a McKinsey report highlighted the following statistics:

• 50% of work activities are technically automatable by adapting current technologies
• More than 30% of activities are technically automatable in around 6 in 10 jobs

Don’t Be Scared!

Many cases, jobs will not disappear. Instead, automation and AI will help to evolve job roles and help make human workers more effective. In turn, this will make businesses more successful, helping economies grow and increasing wages, which fuels consumption and further growth.

Even where jobs do disappear, the opportunities brought about by automation, and AI will lead to other job opportunities becoming available. Many of these jobs will be in new industries and sectors created as a direct result of using AI, too!

5 Jobs That Will Disappear By 2030

1. Travel Agent:  Although I thought this was already obsolete, it isn’t. The impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry is going to be long-lasting. Travel companies will decide to cut out the human element all together. Who needs a human when all the information for travel is right at your fingertips. Travel companies have lowered customer support costs with AI Chatbots and Automated Support Inquiries.

2. Taxi Drivers: Another career path that has been on the brink of extinction for some time.  Uber is pushing forward in the driverless technology space with a new program that will roll out in 2022. The program will introduce a fleet of Motional self-driving vehicles to make Uber Eats deliveries in the Santa Monica area. Demand may leave a market for human-driven taxis, but these will struggle to survive as automation will drive prices down.

3. Cashiers:  In one poll this occupation was voted 92% to be fully automated in the next decade and be fully replaced by AI/robots. The number of ‘Cashiers’ job openings is expected to decline by -10% by 2030.  McDonald’s announced plans last year to replace cashiers with digital ordering kiosks in 2,500 of its restaurants, and a local grocery store in Wisconsin features a mobile shopping experience that allows customers to scan items as they shop and pay on the way out without needing a cashier. The US market for automated checkout is worth $50 billion, the firm estimated.

4. Fast Food Cooks: The workforce issue post-pandemic put this movement in to fast motion.  Restaurant had to figure out how to survive without the workers.  They showed us!  Fast food restaurants are not shy about showing us that they are trying to rely less and less on the human workforce. Most of them have already made the change to self-service terminals when placing your order, so the next logical step is to move into the kitchen. Cooks are being replaced with an automated arm to flip the burgers and put the sandwiches together. So the cashiers are gone and the cooks are gone, what’s left?  Handing out the bags…don’t kid yourself, this too will be replaced.

5. Paralegals and Legal Assistants: AI can process and index more data in far less time compared to lawyers. That means that lawyers and paralegals won’t have to spend too much of their time doing repetitive work. They can focus on more crucial aspects of the job, such as strategy development. Automation and digitization will continue to become more refined in the coming decade, and the need for humans to complete these jobs will dwindle further. Paralegals and legal assistants facing a 94% probability of having their jobs computerized.