Peter Sondergaard,\u00a0Gartner global head of research, says that the displacement of skill areas caused by digitalisation and the\u00a0industrialisation of technology makes for a “frightening debate”.<\/p>\n
Gartner predicts that, by 2020, one in three knowledge\u00a0workers will be replaced by the\u00a0enterprise-owned smart\u00a0machines they trained.<\/p>\n
Sondergaard, who was speaking at the Gartner Symposium in Cape Town \u00a0on Monday (16 September), said that\u00a0while 2.5 billion “things” were connected in 2009 \u2013 that figure could be to up to 30 billion by 2020, stressing that those would be machines with unique IP addresses.<\/p>\n
The research lead forecasts that by 2015, IT and telecoms will generate $4 trillion, representing as much as 5% of the global GDP.<\/p>\n
Gartner forecasts that\u00a0by 2024,\u00a0at least 10% of activities\u00a0potentially injurious to human life\u00a0will use a mandated \u201csmart\u00a0system\u201d.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the group said that, through the\u00a0digitalisation\u00a0of the industrial economy, the\u00a0labour reduction\u00a0effects will cause social\u00a0unrest in mature economies as a soon as 2020.<\/p>\n
With the effect of technology on farming jobs, and robotics having eliminated manufacturing jobs in the past,\u00a0Sondergaard said that\u00a0with robotics and 3D printing, it becomes cheaper to manufacture in a low cost region.<\/p>\n
This, he believes, is going to change the whole industrial map of the world.<\/p>\n
The research lead noted, though, that this may lead to an opportunity for South Africa \u2013 to play in the delivery and sub-manufacturing environment, particularly as a feeder to the African markets. “It makes sense to optimise the traveling cost,” he said.<\/p>\n
Over the long term, Sondergaard said that the rapid rise of smarter machines and robotics is\u00a0going to challenge service jobs \u2013 the western world is getting older \u2013 giving rise to robotic function to certain roles people do, namely lifting using robotic technology.<\/p>\n
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