If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Did you know that some of the most prestigious white-collar professions are actually the most at risk of being replaced by sophisticated computer programs?
- Have you ever wondered which common daily tasks are already being handled by hidden algorithms, and how soon your own career might face a radical transformation?
- Are you curious about the secret to staying relevant and thriving in a job market where robots can perform tasks faster and more accurately than humans?
Listen to The Robots Are Coming! — Free Audiobook
Loading player...
Key Takeaways from The Robots Are Coming!
- Understand the sheer scale of the coming automation wave, which threatens to eliminate up to 47 percent of current US jobs by 2033.
- Identify which surprising careers face a 95 percent chance of obsolescence—including sports refereeing and insurance underwriting—so you can prepare for the future economy.
- Discover the four economic factors driving the global 'robotic revolution' in manufacturing, and why even low-cost labor markets like China are rapidly replacing human workers.
- Learn how rapid advancements in autonomous vehicle and drone technology will disrupt the transportation industry, rendering millions of drivers obsolete by the mid-2020s.
- Explore why the explosion of e-commerce is actively eradicating traditional retail jobs without replacing them, as giants like Amazon move toward fully automated operations.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from The Robots Are Coming!
Mind Map
The Robots Are Coming!
The Automation Threat
47% of US jobs risk elimination by 2033
Highly routinized and repetitive jobs are most vulnerable
Jobs will be eliminated, radically transformed, or newly created
Manufacturing
Industrial robots are replacing human factory workers globally
China is heavily automating to offset rising labor costs
Robots offer cheaper, faster, 24/7 precision productivity
Western corporations are reshoring automated factories to eliminate shipping
Transportation
Self-driving trucks and taxis will displace millions of drivers
Delivery drones and flying taxis are actively being developed
Rapidly improving sensors will mature autonomous driving by mid-2020s
Retail & Service Sector
E-commerce giants like Amazon are crushing brick-and-mortar retail jobs
Warehouses are shifting to robotic picking and drone delivery
Surviving stores use self-checkout and robotic inventory assistants
Fast food is adopting touch-screen ordering and food-prep robots
White-Collar Automation
Law
Banking
Healthcare
Virtual assistants and internet searches handle routine medical questions
Wearables and microchips enable constant self-monitoring and diagnosis
AI supercomputers diagnose diseases faster and more accurately
Nano-bots and robotic surgeons perform highly precise internal treatments
Human doctors will shift to counseling and mediating AI diagnoses
Knowledge Work Transformation
Journalism
Education
The Future Economy
New Support Roles
Entertainment Boom
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 10
According to the 2013 Oxford University study mentioned in the text, what is a sobering prediction regarding the US economy?
The Robots Are Coming! — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: After years of hype, industrial robots now set to replace human factory workers.
Chapter 3: Progress in self-driving tech will soon make truck, taxi, delivery drivers all obsolete.
Chapter 4: Demand for retail and restaurant workers is already shrinking fast due to automated technologies.
Chapter 5: Automation will soon handle many of the more routine tasks across the entire legal profession.
Chapter 6: As banking moves online with algorithmic help, the industry will increasingly need fewer human workers in the future.
Chapter 7: Automated technologies will take on monitoring our health, diagnosing conditions, and administering treatments for diseases.
Chapter 8: Across healthcare and beyond, many future roles will center on supporting automated systems and workflows.
Chapter 9: Automation will let journalists pursue more engaging work and do it in stronger ways.
Chapter 10: Thanks to automation, teachers’ roles will move from delivering knowledge toward nurturing key soft skills in students.
Chapter 11: Entertainment and cultural industries will grow in importance as automation gives people far more free time to enjoy.
The Robots Are Coming! Summary & Overview
The Robots Are Coming! (2019) provides a wide-ranging survey of the rapidly approaching – and, in many cases, already emerging – future of automation. In the coming decades, sophisticated robots, computer programs and other forms of automated technology will eliminate many jobs in many fields, and will radically transform the jobs that remain. Andrés Oppenheimer takes us on an insightful and eye-opening tour of some of the key industries to be affected and the major transformations that lie ahead.
Who Should Listen to The Robots Are Coming!?
- Skeptics who wonder if the robots really are coming
- Pessimists who fear the future they will bring
- Optimists who hope they will unlock new possibilities for humanity
Books Similar to The Robots Are Coming!
Readers who enjoyed this also liked these titles.
The Future of Work
★ 3.9 / 5 • 230 ratingsRobots, AI, and Automation
Human/Machine
★ 4.1 / 5 • 105 ratingsThe Future of Our Partnership With Machines
What To Do When Machines Do Everything
★ 4.0 / 5 • 172 ratingsHow To Get Ahead In A World Of AI, Algorithms, Bots and Big Data
The AI-fication of Jobs
★ 0.0 / 5 • 0 ratingsPreparing Ourselves for the Future of Work