Our jobs are only going to change, not disappear.

How AI and Remote Work is shaping the future of work

Our jobs are only going to change, not disappear.

The way we work is changing every day and this it is going to be the biggest revolution that the man kind is going to see. Why? Because, work is something that defines us. Any change into that is going to have a huge impact on us!

Have you ever been to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia? If you have, you’ll find a bunch of young folks working out of a cafe. They are called ‘Digital Nomads’. Digital Nomads have location independent work so they are free to travel the world while they work.

I founded Indiez, a community powered remote work platform after a trip to Vietnam. When I spoke to digital nomads I loved the story that I heard from them and it inspired me to build a platform that enabled people to work on awesome projects remotely.

Multiple companies like Indiez have been founded in the recent years. It’s easy to see that the rise of ‘Gig Economy’, facilitated by technology is the biggest driver of the upcoming change in the employment scenario.

To be very honest, gig economy is not something which is very new. It existed 200 years ago when some lancers were picked up by army on a daily basis. They were the one who were not sworn to any king and were ‘free’. Hence, the term ‘free-lancer’.

But today, with technology the same concept is getting extended to almost all kind of job roles.

A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organisations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

An estimated 9.2 million Americans will work in the gig economy by 2021, up from 3.8 million in 2016, according to combined research from Intuit and Emergent Research. A more than 200 percent increase presents a significant opportunity for marketplaces, both in the US and beyond.

While at the same time. there are mixed speculations about the ‘gig economy’.

Some say it’s the future of work!

They love the concept and can’t wait until the gig economy frees everyone from working as employees for large, bureaucratic organisations. While others worry that this is the latest form of labor exploitation that will surely consume all of us, driving us into the pits of poverty.

Just like any change that occurs in the economy, there are people who win and lose with the expansion of gig economy.

An article by HBR pointed out — Workers with specialised skills, deep expertise, or in-demand experience win in the gig economy. They can command attractive compensation, garner challenging and interesting work, and secure the ability to structure their own working lives.

The people who will struggle most in the gig economy are corporate workers whose skills are common, commoditized, or less in demand.

While that offers some perspective, in this article, let’s explore further the various forces shaping the gig economy? Is it really the future of work as it’s hyped up to be? And more importantly, what does it mean for people like you and me?

Gig Economy isn’t just for startups anymore

Increasingly Fortune 500 companies and global giants like Samsung are turning to online freelancing platforms like Upwork and PeoplePerHour to find designers, marketing staff, IT specialists and other knowledge workers. Currently, Upwork, for instance, works with 20 percent of Fortune 500 firms.

On a broader level, what this points out to is the shift in overall values.

Traditionally, hiring and retaining talent has been one of the core focus areas for the big corporations. There’s also intellectual property to protect and culture to maintain.

But with the shift in values, the larger firms have begun to appreciate more “permeable borders” and to see freelance workers as a source of fresh ideas and “knowledge transfer” from the wider world. There are companies like Pilot.co, Toptal and Marketworker facilitating this.

Future Workforce Report 2017 by Upwork

The bigger reason however, for corporations to participate in the gig economy is that it is so much more efficient in terms of cost and time involved. Corporations like Samsung, having embraced the freelancing model, observed 60% cost savings and reduction in administrative time by 64%, and hence they truly believe this model to be the future of work.

Millennials form a huge percentage of gig economy

By the year 2020, millennials will make up 75 percent of the US workforce. The Millennial Economy Report states that almost half (44 percent) of the millennials surveyed have a side hustle. This report highlights the fact that Millennials are looking for careers that give them freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

Whether the primary motivation is to choose their own hours and work from home, travel the world while earning a living, become their own boss or otherwise, countless millennials are opting to ditch traditional full-time employment and cash in on the gig economy.

The independent knowledge workers

Independent professionals tend to be experts in their field. Typically breaking from the traditional work structure after they have mastered their craft, independent professionals have no employer or employees — they work directly with clients for profit.

The economy is now powered by millions of micro-entrepreneurs who own their businesses, rather than a small number of giant corporations. Virtual jobs for knowledge workers is fast becoming the new normal for the Gig economy.

They are accountable for their work and hold multiple job roles. For instance, it’s now possible for someone to be working for McKinsey as well as BSG — something that wasn’t possible before.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence

It has been speculated that the workforce landscape is due to change in the next decade. Robotics and artificial intelligence will perform any dull, dirty or dangerous jobs.

What that means for the gig economy is that a large section of mundane tasks will cease to exist.

We can expect AI to replace financial planners, administrators and accountants to name a few. This increase of threat of the current jobs disappearing in the near future means only one thing — In ten years everybody will be forced to be an ‘entrepreneur’.

While that might or might not be a good thing. It clearly does point out to an increase in number of people forming a part of gig economy.

Although it’s conceivable that humanity will automate itself into unemployment, for the near future at least, gig workers capable of retooling and pivoting can expect to keep finding more and more work. There will be newer requirements taking shape and ability to mould according to them will determine success in the world where AI and rise of gig economy are two major drivers.

There will also be need of AI enabled smart tools to match relevant workers to the organisations who need them. More and more companies will work in this domain.

‘You get what you pay for’

Even in the gig economy, how you treat the people you work with determines everything. Companines like HomeJoy (home cleaning), SnapGoods (gear rental), and SpoonRocket (home delivery of fast food) have gone out of business because apparently their CEOs never learned the old business secret that “you get what you pay for”.

The quality of the human worker is crucial to the success and depends on how well the workers are treated and rewarded. If companies show their workforce no allegiance or loyalty, and they engender none in return.

Fortunately, we are seeing some potential solutions.

One is a stock photography website launched in 2013 called Stocksy United, which, besides providing stunning images, also is a worker-owned cooperative. Unlike many billion-dollar “unicorn” startups that pay their workers peanuts, the Stocksy member-photographers keep most of the money from sales of their work. The company’s revenue doubled in 2015 to $7.9 million, with more than half paid out in royalties.

Etsy, an online sales platform that connects professional craftspeople to customers, is another company that appears to be offering a fair deal, with Etsy taking a reasonable fee of 3.5 percent for each sale. Uber, by contrast, takes 25–30 percent of each fare. Juno, founded by Talmon Marco is competing against Uber by treating its drivers better, including offering higher wages and stock options.

Concerns about job security

The ‘gig economy’ essentially means “Uber-ization” of the workforce in the coming decades. Every service which could be outsourced will be, and will be done so on a demand basis.

Everything will be priced by the deliverables, making almost everyone an ad-hoc service provider. It’s easy to see that the job security of yesteryears is forever gone. There will be no assurance of employment until retirement.

The gig economy treats a worker’s labor like just another ore to be fed into the company machine. Workers are paid only for the exact minutes they are producing a report, or designing a logo, or cleaning someone’s house. It’s as if a star quarterback got paid only when throwing a touchdown pass, or a chef was paid by the meal. There’s no annual or monthly salary.

It takes us back to the days of the piecemeal wage economy, which was more prevalent in previous centuries. That doesn’t sound that bright? Does it?

There are some solutions that the government is trying to find to this. One possibility is the ‘portable safety net’ wherein every business would contribute a “benefits fee” for each of its workers, pro-rated to the number of hours worked for that business. The worker would be able to port her or his “individual security account” from job to job.

While that seems like a possibility, that could also be easily integrated with ‘blockchain’, it’s still something that has not been worked on. As of today, there is almost negligent safety for the gig workers in this regard.

Conclusion —

As quoted by John Hagel in one his detailed articles about the gig economy — We’re just in the earliest stages of an emerging and evolving gig economy.

Over time, it is likely to evolve from a focus on routine tasks (as they get replaced by robots) to a better focus on creative work. This in turn will lead to a shift from work that is defined by short-term transactions to work that is pursued in the context of rich, trust-based and sustained relationships.

In short, the gig economy may become a fertile seedbed to help all of us achieve more of our potential and deliver expanding value to the marketplace.

Starting up? Do it right! Join 100+ amazing founders who built successful products with Indiez.

Know more about us here — Indiez.io