The 2017 research done by McKinsey&Company contains a lot of data about the potential for certain jobs and job sectors to become automated. Although the compacted results found in the presentation being used in this (which leads to some of the information being difficult to interpret due to the need for a speaker) most of it is still very simple to understand once you know what to look for.

 

FTE stands for full-time equivalent and in jobs means working full time. According to research done by McKinsey&Company the automation of the workforce can lead to long term GDP growth (America). This is researched through looking at productivity of people versus machines and comparing the potential monetary gain through implementing machines in areas of work where they are able to replace the current human counterpart. Although this data is not directly relevant to the question being answered in this research report it is important to understand that automation of the workforce is less of an “it might happen” and more of an “it will happen” scenario and analysing some of the benefits associated with a digital workforce help to show this. The graph used in this paragraph can be found here.

 

Another section from the presentation shows a graph that describes the most automatable sectors in work. The basic trend of the graph shows that the less personalised a type of work is the more likely it is to be automised using currently available technology. It is important to note with this graph that types of work that involve some type of interaction with customers doesn’t necessarily make it less automatable. Take for example a digital customer assistant, if you are browsing a website sometimes you will find a chat bot which you can ask pre-set questions and it is able to run you through a selection of possible solutions or provide answers to basic questions. This shows that provided it is not personalised communications, it is exceptionally easy to automate.