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The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts
Abstract
This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them. In an Internet society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century. The Future of the Professions explains how 'increasingly capable systems' -- from telepresence to artificial intelligence -- will bring fundamental change in the way that the 'practical expertise' of specialists is made available in society. The authors challenge the 'grand bargain' -- the arrangement that grants various monopolies to today's professionals. They argue that our current professions are antiquated, opaque and no longer affordable, and that the expertise of their best is enjoyed only by a few. In their place, they propose six new models for producing and distributing expertise in society. The book raises important practical and moral questions. In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks, what are the prospects for employment, who should own and control online expertise, and what tasks should be reserved exclusively for people? Based on the authors' in-depth research of more than ten professions, and illustrated by numerous examples from each, this is the first book to assess and question the relevance of the professions in the 21st century.
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“A significant portion of professional work in fact involves routine activities (Ford 2015(Ford , 2021;;Susskind andSusskind 2015, 2020)”
From Artificial intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences (2024) · cites this paper as Susskind and Susskind 2015
In the citing paper
“First, a detailed look at what professionals actually do challenges the assumption that work that appears more complex or requiring higher skills is necessarily equivalent with non routine work.”
From Artificial intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences (2024) · cites this paper as Susskind and Susskind 2015
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Metadata
- Authors
- Susskind, R., & Susskind, D.
- ORCID
- Susskind, Daniel
- Venue
- Oxford University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2015-10-22
- OpenAlex
- W4247188100
- Cited by
- 936
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 118 · 2025: 149 · 2024: 100 · 2023: 80 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 102 · 2020: 103 · 2019: 80 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 21
- FWCI
- 38.97
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Keywords
- future of the profession, professional decline, artificial intelligence, telepresence, automation, Grand Bargain, professional monopoly, employment prospects, legal profession, medical profession, accounting profession, architectural profession
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