While many people are excited by the prospects of analytics, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, there are others for whom the headlines about the loss of jobs and a rapidly changing workplace are just as potent.

There are many workers who will face significant disadvantages in the future workplace. There are those with a higher likelihood of technological disruption from automation given the nature of their work. Imagine being that bank teller or the person who works front of house at a hotel, who sees technology increasingly encroaching on what was traditionally their job. 

And there are those with fewer resources to navigate career transitions because of a limited financial safety-net, lower job security and unequal access to training.

At Accenture, we firmly believe that new technologies create huge opportunities and will do again in this fourth industrial revolution. 

In fact, our research has shown that by 2022 AI alone could increase revenues by 38 per cent and employment by 10%. However, we recognise that more needs to be done to support and enable those who will be disadvantaged to be ready to navigate the coming disruption successfully.

How can today’s workforce be tomorrow’s? And how do we support vulnerable workers transition to new career paths?

The answer is that we must start to build an inclusive future of work, where all workers have the motivation, means and opportunity to thrive in the digital economy. 

For our part, we are actively encouraging our partners to work with us to design, develop and pilot solutions to address the issues.

Through a series of in-workplace and expert interviews, design workshops and the data analysis of more than 14,000 workers and 1,200 employers, we have developed an approach built around four principles -– envision, expand, experience and empower. 

Firstly, we can support workers to envision a future built on their strengths and the confidence to achieve their personal career aspirations.

We can help them by expanding access to relevant learning inside and outside the workplace to future-proof skills. 

We can create opportunities to experience new roles and add to people’s work history by putting skills into practice. 

At each point, we can envisage workforce interventions to support the adult population most at risk to develop the new skills they need to sustain employment. 

We discuss ‘new skilling’ rather than reskilling because we believe skills building is additive. We aim to provide workers with new skills to supplement their existing expertise, rather than discredit or discount what has already been learned. 

Despite the threats posed by technology disruption we can harness the power of AI and machine learning to find the solutions to offer the workforce an entirely new, future-oriented learning experience that is customised, personalised, dynamic and predictive. 

Such AI-enabled learning will require strong ethical governance, but applied responsibly can be used to propose new opportunities, tailored learning and potential new career paths. 

The pioneers are already out there. French start-up Bayes Impact created Bob Emploi, a digital service that uses algorithms based on data from the French Employment Agency to help job seekers find resources that best match their specific profiles. 

The SkillsFuture Movement works alongside education and training partners, and strategic intermediaries to build a dynamic skills ecosystem to support pre-skilling, new-skilling and deep-skilling of individuals to be resilient for the new economy.

In Scotland, our new skilling initiatives have been focused on young adults not in education, employment or training. Approaching 2,300 young adults have accessed Accenture’s Skills to Succeed Academy in partnership with the DWP and Skills Development Scotland. 

We have provided Digital Skills through our peer-to-peer learning modules offered by FutureLearn, in conjunction with Young Enterprise Scotland to nearly 27,000 people across the UK.  And in partnership with The Prince’s Trust we are proud of our two-week ‘Get into Tech’ programme that supports participants into sustainable employment, including Accenture Apprenticeships. 

There is now a new wave of projects underway in the US and UK, including ShiftLabs, The Good Foundation and GoodPaths. These pilots will serve as laboratories to test and improve our new skilling framework with the aim of helping workers in jobs at risk of automation disruption navigate the transition ahead.

We need to shift the conversation, have the courage to talk about the future for all workers and to think about work planning by recognising inherent value as the basis to develop new skills and talent pools.  We’ve put out a call to join us to build the Inclusive Future of Work. Are you ready to act?

- David Caskie is professional management company Accenture Scotland’s Corporate Citizenship Sponsor