Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • OUTLOOK

How automation is changing work

More robotics and artificial intelligence in the workplace doesn’t have to destroy your job.
  1. Michael Segal

    1. Michael Segal is a writer and editor-in-chief of Nautilus magazine.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Self-driving trucks could turn the role of truck driver into a technology job. Credit: Daimler AG

If you were beginning a career in computer programming in 2007, there were good times ahead: robust salary growth, the construction of the app ecosystem and economy, and the meteoric rise of social media. But if you happened across that August’s issue of Business Week magazine, you might have been discouraged. It predicted that the career most likely to suffer from job losses in the United States was … computer programmer.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 563, S132-S135 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07501-y

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Digital revolution, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

References

  1. Slaughter, A.-M. et al. Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers, and Technology. Report of Findings (New America & Bloomberg, 2017).

  2. Frey, C. B. & Osborne, M. A. The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? (Oxford Martin School & Univ. Oxford, 2013).

  3. Nedelkoska, L. & Quintini, G. Automation, Skills Use and Training. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 202 (OECD Publishing, 2018).

  4. Acemoglu, D. & Restrepo. P. Robots and Jobs: Evidence From US Labor Markets. NBER Working Paper No. 23285 (NBER, 2017).

  5. Lordan, G. & Neumark, D. Labour Econ. 52, 40–53 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Yankelevich, A. et al. Preparing the Workforce for Automated Vehicles (American Center for Mobility, Michigan State Univ. & Texas A&M Transportation Institute, 2018).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links