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South Africa needs to act now to ensure that humans and machines can work together in the future, otherwise the country could see at least 5-million jobs being shed within seven years.
That's the view of Accenture Consulting Africa's managing director, Dr Roze Phillips.
"With the threat of automation growing, South Africa is less prepared than other countries and needs to give its workforce skills to participate in the digital economy. In a country with a staggering 27.7 percent unemployment and jobless youths making up 75 percent of unemployment, the future looks bleak," said Phillips.
"Our research shows that if South Africa can double the pace at which its workforce acquires skills relevant to human-machine collaboration, it can reduce the number of jobs at risk from 3.5-million just 2.5-million by 2025."
She said that in a country like South Africa where poverty remains, rates of unemployment are high and social security questionable, it's vital for the country to upskill its people to collaborate with machines so that machines enhance their own productivity, rather than causing job losses.
"Machines do not consume things, and while they can replace human work, they do not drive purchasing behaviour or contribute to GDP. Society will regress if humans can't work, earn and spend. South Africa needs to learn how to 'run with machines'."

Which jobs in South Africa are the most at risk?
Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks have the highest risk of automation, said Phillips.
"The results (from our research) clearly show that occupations that allocate more time to human-like activities have a lower probability of automation, while workers involved in occupations such as production, office administration, tellers, cashiers, farming, food preparation, accounting, auditing, insurance claims and policing, processing clerks, construction, mining, transportation, installation and maintenance are at highest risk."
Both white- and blue-collar jobs are at risk.
The more predictable and repetitive the activities that make up the tasks, the more likely it is to be replicated by machines or automated. The safest jobs are those that require influencing and advising people, teaching, programming, real-time discussions, negotiating and cooperating with co-workers.
Dr Phillips also noted that although the research seems to paint a gloomy picture, the opportunity for South Africa is considerable.
"Digital technology will usher in a new economic era, exposing new sources of value and growth, increasing efficiency and driving competitiveness. For South Africa to rise to the challenge, the country needs to recalibrate its economy and its workforce for digital, creating entirely new products, services and markets. And the time to do that is now."

Which skills are critical to learn?
In the digital economy, work will no longer be restricted to one employer, job or team. People will need to constantly learn new skills to remain relevant. Phillips pointed out five skills that will be critical to securing a job and ultimately retaining it.
1. Learn to Earn
Foundation skills are critical — literacy, numeracy and digital literacy — as well as basic employability skills such as conduct and work protocols — time management, listening, and negotiation.
2. Build Tech Know-How
The ability to use digital devices and share data, working effectively alongside machine intelligence, understanding how technology and data are built, manipulated and applied, is vital.
3. Create and Solve
Problem solving will require thinking unconventionally, gathering ideas from diverse sources, and applying design thinking, critical thinking, reason and logic to assess and analyse problems, and entrepreneurial mindset.
4. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
The foundation blocks for personal resilience and ability to cope with and adapt to change will require skills such as the ability to cultivate curiosity, openness, a growth mindset and the capacity of lifelong learning, underpinned by cognitive functions such as flexibility.
5. Specialise for Work
Specialised work skills will no longer be static or fixed in the digital economy and will need to continuously change based on context, industry, market demand and type of work.

How companies can respond
Prioritise skills for development
Selecting skills training will depend on the type of machine-intelligence-automation being used, as well as the size, sector and existing skills levels of an organisation.
Keep building on what you have
Rapid reskilling can ensure that you keep your workforce but constantly change the way they do their jobs through innovative learning methods, enhancing digital capabilities to meet the challenging expectations of clients, service delivery and production.
Use digital to learn digital
Digital learning methods such as virtual reality and augmented reality technology can provide realistic simulations to help workers master new tasks so they can work with smart machinery. The same technology can be used to help reinforce correct procedures on the shop floor, monitoring how employees execute tasks and coaching them to do it the best way.
Create a more flexible workforce model
Rigid, formal job structures do not support the speed and agility needed in the face of digital innovation. Redefining and cocreating employment opportunities through more responsive role-based and gig-like work is a reality. These opportunities need to be available to both full-timers and freelancers.