Why was ‘Rise of the Robots’ named the most important business book of the year?

• Who is this post for? Everyone
• What does it discuss? The winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year
• How does it benefit you? Increased awareness regarding the future safety of your job and income, and solutions to protect it

Last week we wrote about how to start evaluating if your job is at threat due to it being automated in the future. This week we look at the recent winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, for it gives a more comprehensive overview of the very near future and offers advice and solutions to prepare for it.

There are many who believe this to be a time in our human history when market forces should not be allowed to blindly prevail, and that public policy should dictate the future of our working lives. As the author of the book Martin Ford says himself, “I’m not arguing that the technology is a bad thing. It could be a great thing if the robots did all our jobs and we didn’t have to work. The problem is that your job and income are packaged together. So if you lose your job, you also lose your income, and we don’t have a very good system in place to deal with that.”

Read more about the book here

We’d be really interested to hear your thoughts upon reading the book. Are Ford’s solutions practical or viable? Only time and collective debate will tell.

Will a robot take your job?

• Who is this post for? Everyone
• What does it discuss? The impact of technological change on the jobs market
• How does it benefit you? Plan your future; Protect your income; Think about your childrens’ education

Most economists would agree that the single biggest factor affecting the jobs market is the level of technological change. Last week the Bank of England’s Andy Haldane hit the headlines when speaking at the TUC and claiming that 15 million UK jobs were at risk of being replaced by robots.

As this BBC article points out, many of the headlines missed the nuances of Haldane’s speech but it was thought-provoking nonetheless. Have you considered the future of your job in the context of advances in technology? If not, this calculator may kick-start your appraisal of the safety of your job and start you thinking about the value you bring to the jobs market, how you sell yourself and what additional education may be beneficial to you.  We’ll be writing about helpful platforms and tools you can use for such purposes in future weeks but for now, we’d be interested to hear from anyone taking steps to safeguard their income considering what jobs are likely to be automated in the very near future.