The declining requirement for professional and technical skills due to ever-increasing technology. Also spelled "de-skilling" and pronounced "d-
skill-ing," as robotics and AI applications take the place of human labor and thinking, fewer people are needed. Over time, the general public loses skills that were previously required. See
AI anxiety.
Some Dire Predictions
Billionaire investor Vinod Khosla believes that the labor transformation will be so massive that today's 5-year-olds will never have jobs. Khosla claims that 80% of all professions, including physicians, accountants and sales reps will be replaced in the future!
Upskilling Too
The opposite of deskilling, upskilling requires new skills to take advantage of the latest technologies. Robotics and AI engineers are in great demand; however, given the complexity of these advanced technologies, there would appear to be more deskilling than upskilling. One point in favor of upskilling is that millions of people now using chatbots for routine work will benefit as they gain greater proficiency in asking questions (see
AI prompt). See
AI glossary and
AI programming.