Technology and the impact it can have on jobs is an emotional subject in many industries. New systems can bring cost efficiencies for businesses and noticeable service improvements for customers, but the end result may mean less staff are required to deliver a service (or at the very least they are deployed in different ways).

Unions have understandably been very vocal about this area in recent years. On the London Underground for example, the decision to close the majority of ticket offices in favour of requiring passenger to use self-service machines – or simply use contactless payments – has resulted in a succession of strikes. 

But this week’s Analysis programme on Radio 4 has highlighted that some experts believe technological advances are having a much wider impact than ever before. For a long time machines have put manual workers out of work, but now there is evidence this phenomenon is stretching much further to white collar jobs. 

Central to robots’ ability to muster into so-called ‘cognitive work’ is their ability to recognise ‘patterns’. If programmed correctly, machines now have the potential to perform tasks that were previously conducted by skilled professionals. 

Technological advances are of course nothing new. From the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution – perhaps even earlier – there has been an attempt to bring efficiencies to production processes. 

Rather than smashing up machines like Luddites, I think society should in many ways be optimistic about the impact technology can have on our working lives. As one contributor to this week’s Radio 4 programme pointed out, while robots just follow algorithms humans are very creative beings. So while machines do the drudge work, we can focus on innovating and enjoying much more meaningful things in life.     

For me, as technology advances, education and lifelong learning becomes much more important. While certain roles are being phased out, others – like computer programmers – are struggling to be filled. We need to make sure that our young people are getting the training they deserve to be equipped for the future.