How Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics Will Affect Our Workforce Over the Next 10 Years

Automation is transforming traditional occupations, changing the day-to-day tasks of workers, and potentially creating new jobs, suggests new research from the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) at Ryerson University.

The report, entitled “The Talented Mr. Robot: The Impact of Automation on Canada’s Workforce,” analyzes automation and how it will directly affect the Canadian labour market over the next 10 to 20 years.

The report indicates that nearly 42 per cent of the Canadian labour force is at a high risk of being affected by automation in the future. The recent rise of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics means that automation is now entering the realm of cognitive, non-routine tasks and occupations, such as driving and conducting job interviews.

“Our findings show that a significant percentage of Canadian jobs are at a high risk of being replaced by automation over the next 10 to 20 years,” said Sean Mullin, Executive Director of BII+E.

Jobs that are considered to be at a low risk of automation are linked to high skill levels and higher earnings, such as management and jobs in science, technology, engineering and math. The vast majority of high-risk occupations are in office support and general administration, sales and services, transportation and distribution, lower skilled technical occupations in health, natural and applied sciences, as well as manufacturing and construction labourers and assemblers.

Included as part of the report is an interactive and downloadable tableau visualization for jobs likely to be automated. It portrays every occupation studied as part of the report, segmented by income, current percentage of the Canadian labour force, and probability of automation.