The 21st-century tech revolution will be unlike previous industrial revolutions by changing or eliminating positions up and down the occupational ladder.

Unfortunately, we’re unprepared for a cultural shift that will redefine how we view education and work. Our children will be the ones who suffer the consequences if we don’t help them prepare for the changes ahead.

The Associated Press recently introduced artificial intelligence (AI) to handle their corporate earnings and sports reports. It isn’t just reporters who are feeling the ripple effects from the advent of machine learning. Microsoft created an Excel macro environment that can perform stock market analysis and reporting with greater speed and precision than a human analyst.

Many financial planning firms are already using AI to evaluate investments and market them to their clients directly via mobile apps. Even the bustle and chaos on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange is in danger of being replaced by the quiet whir of machinery running automated trading software.

Financial careers and journalism aren’t the only occupations where professionals may be battling robotic hordes for job opportunities in the near future. Let’s look at how technology will affect other white collar careers.

Many of the remaining career opportunities in other white-collar professions will be in supervisory or business development roles. Support positions like paralegals, analysts, and clerical workers will be almost entirely automated within the next decade. JP Morgan already uses a software program that can perform in seconds what it previously took a staff of legal aids 360,000 man hours to do.

Who needs a law clerk to pour over case files one at a time when big data can read tens of thousands and compile them by almost any metric in a matter of minutes? In the medical field, machine learning algorithms consistently outperform trained pathologists and radiologists at interpreting medical imagery.

The risk from automated systems isn’t unique to the United States, either. While we can expect a 38 percent loss of jobs to technological advances by 2030, other industrial-based societies like Germany and the UK are also in danger of seeing job loss percentages in the low- to mid-30s within the next 10 years.

Creativity and critical thinking have been suppressed or set aside as the focus has shifted to test scores, mandates, and percentile rankings. If innovators and stand-outs broke free of the pack, they were the exception and not the norm.

Technology education is seen as enrichment instead of a core, essential skill, and budget cuts cause arts programs to be slashed first. In many school districts, even most children’s favorite “class”, recess, has been reduced or eliminated entirely to give more time over to cramming facts and figures into developing brains. In college, Liberal Arts graduates are seen as having no ambition or future prospects.

Governments and public education institutions seem unwilling or unable to facilitate progress. That leaves independent and alternative education programs, private entities, and parents to pick up the slack.

Private schools and education systems like Montessori are already doing a lot to focus on self-directed learning and helping kids develop real-world future skills, but the tuition to attend these institutions is out of reach for many parents.

One researcher, Marty Neumeier, calls them “meta-skills” that are based in design thinking. This is another way of saying kids should learn from an early age to visualize solutions and think outside of the box as a matter of course.

His theories consist of five components that build upon each other:

– Feeling, which relates to developing empathy, emotional intelligence (EQ), and social skills
– Seeing, which Neumeier defines as systematic thinking ability
– Dreaming in an applied manner
– Making, by bringing the other elements into a concrete form
– Learning, by developing new skills and putting them into action

The biggest risk will be to those who are not in a position to adapt and shift quickly. We used to train for one career that we will keep until retirement.

Now, we need to develop a multitude of skills that could be suitable for any number of occupations or work environments. There also needs to be a society-wide shift in how we view education and work.

Not all of our life experiences can be addressed through a list of pre-designated options. Life just isn’t that predictable, sterile, or neatly packaged. Sometimes, we need to hear a human voice on the other end of the phone or see a smiling face behind the service desk.

The fact is, for almost every technical advancement, there’s another, more human part of the equation that can be developed. We might be amused at first by a robotic receptionist who greets us in the lobby. But, when the novelty of technological innovation wears off, we’re going to take our mental health issues, legal problems, and loved ones needing care to a human being who’s trained to help.

The health care industry can become more efficient, with earlier, more accurate diagnoses that will improve outcomes and save lives. Financial analysts can provide clients with more reliable information that’s truly individualized to their lifestyles and goals.

At this time, there are still things even the cleverest robots can’t do, and flexibility is needed in non-routine blue-collar fields like plumbing where outcomes can be unpredictable.

The role of technology in society should be to improve our quality of life, increase efficiency and productivity in the manufacturing and service sectors, and free up our time for more creative and human pursuits.

Robotics and AI can allow greater accuracy in diagnostics and predictable functions that require mechanical precision and speed. Removing those skills from the job description will allow human workers to improve the quality and meaning of their contribution.

We all want to see our children succeed in careers that are fulfilling and lucrative. Technological progress in the 21st century is genderless and color blind.

Whether your collar is blue, pink, or white, redefining your career goals and diversifying your skills will be essential to the viability of nearly all occupations in the future.

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