Two Problems Solved, Millions Created
AI x Blockchain x The Future of Work
Over the last couple of decades, technology has changed the way we go about our day-to-day lives.
Over the next couple of decades, two technologies will change the way we work.
The combination of AI and blockchain has the potential to render a significant number of jobs meaningless. These technologies will solve two major problems - and if we’re not prepared, create millions.
In the case of AI, we will solve the inefficiency problem. In the case of blockchain, we can solve the trust problem. This combination will lead to many familiar jobs of today becoming redundant, a problem for millions of individuals.
AI and the inefficiency problem
If just a portion of its full potential is realised, AI could be used to solve many of the biggest problems facing the world today. It will do so by applying and building on knowledge previously only available to humans to problems such as climate change, implementing solutions at a pace currently unimaginable to us.
Computers are already more capable at doing lots of tasks better than we are, and they are only getting better. Just look down the high street - where checkouts were previously manned with workers, we now have self-checkouts scanning and weighing our goods. Not only are these machines more efficient at completing the task in hand, they are also infinitely more efficient than we are at collecting, organising, and using data collected.
This will soon start showing up in the office environment. With the pandemic, much of the world was sent to work from home. The concept of a headquartered office being the hub and centre of all activity for corporations is waning. Our jobs have been reduced to hitting the keys on our computers in the correct order and talking into our screens for 8 hours a day, before we need to take a rest.
We like to think of ourselves as decision makers, but how long until we accept that super computers, with reems of data to instantly analyse and interpret, will become infinitely better at predictions than us? With AI rapidly increasing its rate of learning, decisions on what to do about weather events or insurance pay-outs will soon be entirely made by machines. Why waste time bringing human error and emotion into the equation?
Blockchain and the trust problem
The trust problem may not be easy to see, but take a moment to look and it’s easy to find. We have built an economy and millions of jobs on the premise of not trusting one another.
Insurance underwriters, auditors, second hand car salesmen, even banks. These are middle-men, only required because we do not trust one another enough to transact with each other directly when doing business.
By creating a perfect ledger of record for anything you could imagine – car service history, home ownership, financial transactions – the need for middle-men and layers of bureaucracy and record keeping can vanish, replaced by a decentralised, transparent record backed by mathematics and technology – millions of honest, reputable jobs could disappear.
There is no better example of this opportunity for disruption than the banking system. As the “worlds local bank”, HSBC makes over £1bn of profit per year. By decentralising finance, enabled by cryptocurrencies and De-Fi, a large proportion of this profit could be returned to individuals.
I am not saying that blockchain will completely remove the need for banks. But I do believe that blockchain and De-Fi will challenge banks to remove layers of bureaucracy, resulting in a large shift in the number of jobs required.
Two problems solved; millions created.
So what is the answer? Instead of being frightened by the above, we should see these as a set of incredible opportunities. But there are some big changes and challenges to face.
Firstly, education will have to change. Even in a working world that’s not too dissimilar to that of 20 years ago we’ve all asked, whether during school - “when am I ever going to need to know that?”… or long after “why didn’t they teach us about this?”
In a world where our economy and our livelihoods are changing around us at a frightening speed, how can we best prepare our children for what’s to come? How do we prepare ourselves? One thing that is for sure is the requirement of new ways to educate, teaching children the power of creativity, critical thinking, and resilience.
Secondly, the need for millions of people to get on the career ladder, working in jobs they don’t enjoy just because that’s what’s always been done, could disappear. With De-Fi and NFTs putting the power and profits back into the hands of individuals and creators, we could see communities and individuals benefit. This is exciting, but we need to educate ourselves and prepare.
These changes will come in my working life time. We won’t get all the way there. But by the time my children are heading into the working world it will be an entirely different place to when I started in it. Depending on your perspective, that is either terrifying, or exhilarating.