Job Market for Internet of Skills
So how will the emergent internet of skills transform the job market? When the first version of the internet, ARPANET, was created in the late 1960s, it was impossible to imagine the extent to which this invention would alter mankind forever.
We are more connected than ever, information has become democratized and available to everyone. Moreover, our economic models have become so reliant on the internet. What if the internet were to go out for a day, hospitals would be crippled, financial markets would crash, and some businesses would go belly up.
The latest technology breakthrough that has everyone talking is the emergence of the Internet of Things, IoT for short, and the Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT, and how those two are going to revolutionize our lives.
There is something new on the horizon already – the emergence of the internet and there’s already talk about how it will redefine humanity.
How the Internet of Skills Works
Not only has the internet enabled people to access gargantuan amounts of information with a few keystrokes. Moreover, it has also enabled information workers, like engineers, lawyers, and accountants, to deliver their work across great distances, making remote working all the more possible.
The one thing the internet was never good at was transferring physical work.
This is why the Internet of Skills has the potential to be such a game-changer.
The Internet of Skills will enable us to deliver physical experiences across long distances.
By combining super fast internet speeds, AI, as well as haptic, visual and audio technologies, and robots that act as intermediaries, people will be able to deliver physical work remotely with the experience as if they were there.
Internet of Skills Example Scenario:
Let’s say that the plumbing in your house broke, flooding the entire space. So you don’t know anything about plumbing which leaves you with two options:
- You can either fix the plumbing yourself by resorting to Google. Moreover, learning the ABC’s of plumbing or by watching a few tutorial videos on YouTube.
- You will call a professional plumber to come over and fix it for you. This means you’ll have to look for plumbers working in your area who are available right now. Moreover, you might have issues finding them if you live in a remote location or if it’s the middle of the night.
With the Internet of Skills, however, you can get plumbing work done in mere minutes. It enables a plumber living half-way around the world to take a look at your problem and fix it for you.
With a robot acting as an intermediary, the plumber will be able to handle your plumbing snafu as if they were there.
Other Use Cases And Benefits Of The Internet Of Skills
Internet of skills will help in numerous scenarios, not just local plumbing accidents, with the most relevant field being medicine.
Doctors will no longer have to be confined to a specific location. A neurosurgeon can locate in California can operate a patient in Tokyo without ever leaving the state.
Speaking of medical experts, doctors will no longer have to travel to disaster zones to help. Especially if the zone has been hit with a dangerous virus. Instead, they will be able to treat patients remotely. This will achieve several things:
- More help: More doctors will have access to the zone in crisis, increasing the number of medical professionals on the scene.
- Faster response: The doctors’ response time to a certain crisis will be shortened. As they no longer have to traverse long distances to get to where the action is.
- Higher Efficiency: The doctors will be more effective in their job. As they’ll still be working while at home, surrounded by their loved ones.
- Improved safety: The doctors themselves will be safer as they won’t be directly exposed to the contagious virus they are fighting.
Engineers will be able to control, build and repair machinery from anywhere on the globe. Bringing a disruptive new force to the workforce and marketplaces.
So, the next time your car breaks down on the highway with no sign of civilization in sight, there will be no need to worry.
All you have to do is to call AAA, and an engineer there will control a little robot in your car. That will have your car up and running in no time.
How Far Are We From Having The Internet Of Skills?
The above scenarios seem like something from a science fiction novel. The truth is, we’re not quite there yet, but we are getting closer each day. To have an Internet of Skills that we can use, we need to take care of a few prerequisites:
#1 Super-fast Internet
For the Internet of Skills to function properly, it must be serviced by an extremely fast connection. One that minimizes the latency.
Otherwise, there would be a lag between the moment. An individual sends an order and the moment the robot executes this order.
This lag can be problematic if left unchecked. The good news is that with the appearance of 5G internet along with cloud computing and edge computing makes this problem quite tractable.
#2 Advanced Robotics
A lot of the times, a message is only as good as the messenger, and this is one of those times.
Creating robots that can mimic human movement is not easy, and to make matters worse. The more freedom we give a robot in terms of movement. Something that is referred to as degrees of freedom, the more intricate the robot becomes.
#3 Advanced Algorithms And Ai
Whereas artificial intelligence will help with minimizing the lag in the network. Having advanced, standardized algorithms will enable us to scale the network. Moreover, it facilitates the combination of new kinds of information, tactile and kinesthetic, with the information we are already used to transferring, video and audio.
#4 Ar, Vr, And Mr. Technology
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality will prove integral in transferring visual information and helping people see what the robots are seeing.
The good news is that we have made a lot of strides in the above-mentioned technologies.
The rise of Industry 4.0 can be attributed to how far we’ve come in AI, 5G networks, IoT, robotics, and AR and VR, all of which form the backbone of the Internet of Skills.
So, the Internet of Skills can be thought of as the inevitable child of Industry 4.0.
The Inevitable Effect Of The Internet Of Skills
Aside from all the good we’ve discussed, the Internet of Skills will transform the world of business. Employers will no longer be constricted to their immediate locale when looking for new hires.
Companies will be able to reduce their expenses because it will no longer be necessary to have their employees travel great distances just to get the job done.
On the other hand, businesses will have a much harder time protecting their turf. As geography will become much less of a barrier to entry, and the ensuing avalanche of businesses clamoring to offer their services will end up benefiting the end consumer, which is you and me.
Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.