The future of work

Workplace revolution is set to roll on due to the spread of digital technologies

Workplace revolution is set to roll on due to the spread of digital technologies

The nature of work is constantly evolving in response to technological innovation. In recent decades containerisation, computers and, latterly, the internet have transformed how we work. Entire categories of jobs have been destroyed and just as many created. Far from pausing, this workplace revolution is set to roll on due to the spread of digital technologies.

Never-ending change

This newsletter explores the future of work in the digital economy. The disruption to working patterns brought about by Covid-19 has reinforced anxiety about the impact of artificial intelligence and other technologies. An estimated 10%-40% of jobs in the UK could be partly or fully automated in coming decades. But perhaps the most critical lesson to be learned from the pandemic is that businesses have a choice over how they use technology. Employees can be empowered even as labour costs are cut. The key, as with life under lockdown, will be to reorganise the workplace in ways that harness the new technologies to improve productivity. This will have important consequences for pensions. Unless rising productivity spurs wage growth and retirement savings, we argue that the UK faces a real risk of pensioner poverty.

The virtual world of work

Augmented reality and virtual reality are among the innovations set to further shake up working practices. Still in its infancy, AR/VR has the potential to transform sectors such as entertainment, education and healthcare and to make working from home more effective – and pleasurable. But AR/VR demands high-speed, low-latency and reliable broadband. This means telecom operators and policymakers have tough decisions to make about the optimal mix of network infrastructure investment. On a related theme, we show how digitalisation will be central to the effective management of a green, decentralised energy system, which is needed if the UK is to meet its goal of net zero carbon emissions.

Team Thoughts

The critical point to grasp is that retirement outcomes are the product of savings habits ingrained over an entire working life. The sooner policymakers act, the better off people will be in their old age. The biggest policy risk is to do nothing.
Phil Sneade
Associate Director
Prompt action will dictate how many jobs are lost and created, how rewarding and fair the labour of tomorrow will be, and how we can avoid the pitfalls of widening inequality. If we take the right decisions now, we might even learn to live side-by-side with our new machines.
Federico Cilauro
Manager
The widespread deployment of full fibre broadband would provide the best performance, but it is also the most expensive option. Most policymakers have now come to the conclusion that the expected benefits of very high capacity networks (VHCN), i.e. full fibre plus 5G, justify the significant investments required.
Tom Ovington
Manager

In numbers

20%

increase in ratio of pensioners to working-age population (Office of National Statistics)

40%

of jobs in the UK could be affected by automation

Team Thoughts

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