MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Accountants, cashiers, drivers and call center operators are among professions that may virtually disappear in the future due to the spread of services that can replace them, according to experts interviewed by TASS.
"The demand for accountants and clerks will continue to decline in 2019. That’s due to the gradual transition of legal entities to electronic workflows. The number of accountants will diminish by at least 10% each year. In about 10 years, accountants as a widespread profession will cease to exist," Superjob President Alexey Zakharov stated.
Alexander Veterkov, director general of Rabota.ru job service, agrees with Zakharov’s opinion. "Junior level accountants, who perform similar operations at work, are under threat of extinction. Such processes will become increasingly automated. Banks already put tools to use that make it possible to submit accounting reports to the relevant authorities. This trend will only grow," Veterkov stressed.
"The system of unmanned transportation is being increasingly tested. These experiments put the driver’s profession at risk. But for this, the entire infrastructure needs to be changed and it will take a lot of time to implement it throughout the country," the CEO noted.
In turn, Zakharov added that the drivers are going to increasingly start losing their jobs in about five years after major cities shift to unmanned public transportation. "And within the same 10 year period, the number of professional drivers will decrease from the current one million to a maximum of 150,000-200,000" the Superjob president projected.
‘Zero people’ in the workplace concept
"The trend to replace low-skilled workers with robots will continue in the workplace," Veterkov predicted.
"We will see staff cuts at extractive and manufacturing companies. All new enterprises are already being built according to the concept of "zero people in the mine/factory". The number of jobs will not increase in the above mentioned sectors in the future," Zakharov emphasized.
The number of automated cash register areas is also growing in stores, Veterkov noted. "In the future, the cashier profession may vanish. Call center operators are also increasingly being replaced by robots, who are getting smarter every year and can comprehend speech and provide any necessary information," the Rabota.ru director general said.
Automation is starting to penetrate other areas, Veterkov stressed. "We see the introduction of such tools in HR. There are more and more services that can conduct the primary selection of candidates according to set parameters without human participation. This threatens the profession of a recruiter," Veterkov noted.
"Even in the IT-sphere some professions may become subject to automation. Examples include services where an average user can create a website without special training. Several years ago, it seemed to be something difficult to achieve", the expert concluded.