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A new report from McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm, has found that a number of jobs on Wall Street are likely to experience automation.
In particular, high-paying jobs involving data collection and processing in financial services are expected to be susceptible to at least partial machine takeover. McKinsey believes these positions will carry nearly the same level of risk of automation as machine-friendly blue-collar careers, such as those in construction, waste management, and retail.
McKinsey projects that automated services will be able to perform 43 percent of the work in finance, and it is believed that they will, due to high pay in the financial sector.
As automation will not be able to complete all job duties, it is expected that it will simply complete certain tasks. The report’s conclusion is that entire positions will not be eliminated.
It is expected that insurance sales agents and underwriters; bank tellers; and mortgage brokers will incorporate robots into their operations. Each of these positions involve a good amount of paperwork and verifying information. Even using current technology, workloads could be cut significantly.
It is believed that customer-facing tasks will take on greater importance as automation continues to gain steam.
On a separate note, McKinsey’s report noted that positions in education are the least likely to experience wide automation.
At least, with current technology.
Michael Chui, a partner at McKinsey, notes, "If there are technological breakthroughs such as machines being able to acquire natural language abilities, the types of activities that are susceptible to automation could change."
