History
Lots of jobs have been replaced by machinery over the past few centuries. Industries like agriculture and manufacturing were changed forever during the Industrial Revolution when the workforce of 100+ people was replaced by machines that could do their jobs more efficiently. Farmers and factory owners realised that paying hundreds of workers to do the job of one machine was neither time- nor cost-effective, and so many jobs were lost to automation.
Which jobs are most likely to be automated?
Some jobs are far easier to automate than others. The most automation-prone jobs...
- Are based on repetitive manual labour
- Don't require human interaction
- Do not involve creativity or persuasion
Looking at these criteria, it becomes fairly obvious that data science job automation is not at immediate risk. Data science is a very highly skilled job that requires a deep understanding of very complex data sets - and every data set is completely different. Data scientists have to work creatively to show different kinds of data in appropriate formats, and they are often asked to present their findings so that questions can be answered accurately.
A computer may be able to process large amounts of data quickly, but can it interpret the findings into real, actionable results. Not yet! Perhaps as AI develops over the next few years, we'll see more and more intelligent technology that could make the automation of data science jobs more feasible - but we really don't see this as an immediate risk. We're a long way off replacing data scientists for good!
SEE ALSO: Jobs Least Likely to Be Automated
So, to answer the question 'Will data science jobs be automated?' - our gut feeling is no. At least, not any time soon; data science is the kind of job that benefits from the creativity and understanding of the human on the other side of the screen. An futuristic AI or automated approach to data science may produce accurate results, but will they be user-friendly? That's another question.
