Digital Workspace: How will we work in 15 years?

Citrix, a company specializing in solutions for the digital workspace, conducted a comprehensive survey on the future of work. Studies which lasted over a period of one year. For this, the company worked with the consulting firm Oxford Analytica and the business researchers at Coleman Parkes. More than 500 managers and 1,000 employees in large and medium-sized companies in the USA, the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands were asked about their current and future HR strategies and working models. From this, the study authors derived the following four trends for the year 2035:

Support from robots and AI - the Digital Workspace

Robots have long played an important role in the economy. For example, they assemble parts in the automotive industry - faster and more efficiently than any human could ever do. However, they follow a precisely defined sequence. A human has decided in advance what this sequence should look like, and the robot has been programmed accordingly. This could change in the future: Artificial intelligence will enable robots or digital assistants to support humans in decision-making as well. 77 percent of those surveyed by Citrix believe that AI will support decision-making processes in 15 years, leading to increased productivity. Eighty-three percent also believe that simple but time-consuming jobs can be fully automated by 2035. In turn, 79 percent of survey participants see this as an important prerequisite for giving employees more room for further development.

Emergence of new occupational profiles

In the course of the digital transformation and especially with regard to AI, there is widespread fear that there could be large-scale job losses. It is often forgotten that every technical development also creates new jobs. In the course of the digital transformation, the following new occupational fields will emerge according to the estimates of those surveyed in the study:

• Robotics/ AI trainers (82 percent of executives/ 44 percent of employees).
• Virtual reality managers (79 percent of managers/ 36 percent of employees)
• Advanced Data Scientist (76 percent of managers/ 35 percent of employees).
• Privacy and trust managers (68 percent of executives/ 30 percent of employees).
• Design thinkers (56 percent of managers/ 27 percent of employees)

Flexibilization of work

The ever-increasing automation of production processes means that less and less manual work needs to be done by people. Employees who only need a laptop to do their job can, in principle, do it anywhere they have an Internet connection. Companies that recognize this and organize their work culture accordingly can access a much larger talent pool. This will enable new, more flexible working models: 67 percent of respondents believe that a so-called "platform" model will prevail, in which employees and companies work together flexibly on a project-by-project basis. Artificial intelligence could also play an important role in distributed work. Intelligent assistants could, for example, ensure that meetings with participants from different time zones are better coordinated and even adjusted to their respective biorhythms.

Productivity and growth increases through AI

51 percent of the executives surveyed think new technology will make employees at least twice as productive as they are now. AI will play a crucial role in this, according to the respondents. Personal assistants could support employees in their day-to-day work by first learning habits and processes and then taking over repetitive tasks themselves. AI could also take a "critical" look at employee workloads and provide early warnings - for example, at the first signs of burnout. But AI can contribute to a company's success not only indirectly, by increasing employee productivity, but also directly, through its own value creation. 90 percent of the executives surveyed even believe that investments in AI technologies will be primarily responsible for the growth of companies in the future.

Source: Citrix