Agencies most at risk from robots

Agency staff have the most to lose from the rise of technology and robotics in the marketing and advertising industry, according to a new formula drawn up by researchers at Oxford University and Deloitte.
Although the results suggest that there is only 33% likelihood they will end up on the scrap heap, the rise of programmatic trading, automated creative and even machine learning are likely to have a negative impact on many agency roles.
Client marketers, however, appear to be sitting pretty; there is only a 1% chance that they will get the chop. Jobs in other areas of the business, such as telemarketing, print, and data and analytics are not included but PR staff have an 18% chance of seeing themselves replaced, while journalists are way down on just an 8% probability. The full results can be viewed on the BBC website.
Overall, Deloitte claims the automation of jobs is actually benefiting the UK. It analysed Office of National Statistics (ONS) labour force survey data between 2001 and 2015, and matched changes in employment in what it considered to be jobs at low risk, medium risk and high risk of automation.
Occupations classed as at high risk include bank and post office staff, who have lost 100,000 jobs, according to the data, and PAs, where 210,000 were lost, totalling almost 50% of positions during the period of study.
But Deloitte suggests that in the past 15 years, the occupations with the lowest risk of automation have created 3.5 million jobs, while those occupations with the highest risk have lost “just” 800,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, there has been a large increase in jobs in sectors where employees are at low risk of automation. These include care home workers and home carers, which have seen growth of 55%, with 275,000 new jobs.
One of the biggest boosts to employment came from business and financial project managers, who are deemed to be at very low risk of being automated out of work. There have been 170,000 new jobs in this sector, representing growth of 842% over the past 15 years.
The report also suggests that each job created in one of the lower-risk occupations pays £10,000 more than the higher-risk, routine job they replace, adding an estimated £140bn to the UK economy.”Our work shows the automation of jobs – and a shift from brawn to brains – is well underway in every nation, and region of the UK. But we appear to be benefiting from this, not losing out,” said Angus Knowles-Cutler, vice chairman of Deloitte.
“Technology is replacing the high-risk, routine occupations in the UK economy but we are seeing good growth in the creative, caring and complex jobs at less risk of automation, as well as increased economic value from these,” he added.