In hindsight, it’s easy to see that in nearly every generation, innovation impacted job markets and employment trends. It’s not news that human workers are replaced by new technology and that, fortunately, new technology spurs the creation of new jobs and job categories. The list of outdated or diminished jobs is almost nostalgic: switchboard operators, travel agents, librarians.

And twenty years from now we might be fondly recalling our former interactions with the likes of postal carriers, taxi drivers, flight attendants, and bank tellers.

In fact, the job market is an excellent barometer of society’s priorities and technology trends. Pick nearly any futurist topic we’ve explored this year and it’s not too hard to imagine the new jobs that will surround it.

In many cases, the new jobs and categories of jobs will be quite technical as people work to bring blockchain, cryptocurrency, the metaverse, self-driving transportation, and other IT innovations to fruition and then into our daily lives.

Further below, I’ve identified 57 technology-related new jobs in 15 industries that will directly support or respond to these kinds of technology breakthroughs.

It’s Not Just IT

But before we get there, we should recognize that in some cases, technology breakthroughs will lead to more than just technical jobs. Take geriatric services, for example.

Thinking beyond COVID, medical technology is extending life expectancy for seniors. That trend will continue to drive a critical demand for a variety of personal care services for retirees, who are likely to enjoy over 20 years of time after retirement at 65.

And not to overgeneralize or typecast seniors, but as technology increasingly supports our daily lives, many of them will need personalized support just to keep up. Their challenge today may be programming the TV remote or the thermostat, but it’s only going to get more complicated from there. The solution? Personal IT assistants and generalized IT help desks. Sounds like a mission for AMAC and AARP!

IT Redefining Jobs

I should also note that technology is also changing and even upgrading certain jobs, but not necessarily doing away with them. Construction workers and auto mechanics, for example, used to be generalists. But with new technology-based tools, and the need for training on those tools, specialization in these kinds of blue-collar jobs will increase. This specialization increases these workers’ labor clout, market value, and compensation.

There’s another category of jobs enhanced by technology and other tools where the job is the same but the work is not. Recently I’ve watched laborers build a retaining wall and a brick wall on the property across the street. Back-breaking work, right? Not so much as you’d think anymore. These laborers now have access to specialized backhoes, caterpillars, and other equipment downsized for residential work compared to what you’d find on a typical commercial construction site. Thanks to this equipment, you don’t see anyone carrying heavy bricks from the truck to the wall or using a shovel.

What About Retail?

The future isn’t as bright for the approximately 32 million Americans who work in retail jobs. Consumer demand isn’t going away, but how retailers choose to meet that demand will continue to evolve with technology innovations that drive efficiency.

Current trends in e-commerce and in-store automation mean there will be fewer traditional customer-facing jobs. But some of these will be replaced by new jobs managing these platforms and servicing these systems. As with the next generation of blue-collar jobs, these specialty positions may require specialized skills with a level of IT training.

Basically we will see technology taking away much of the mind-numbing tedium of retail just as it did for so many factory workers.

The Cool New Jobs

So far we’ve only talked about incremental changes and the evolution of current employment situations. On another level, we’ll see entire new professions within entire new industries built around new technology. We’ll see job descriptions that weren’t even imaginable 20 years ago.

Yes, there will be high-level computer science jobs with smart people creating new breakthroughs and new versions of breakthroughs.

But at the same time, there will be the need to define and fill some less-obvious positions along with spin-off jobs made possible and necessary by those breakthroughs.

57 Jobs of the Future

Here’s a sampling of future jobs. Some may already sound familiar and plausible. Others are just a few years away. But it would be relatively easy to concoct others and maybe add over a hundred more to this list:

Metaverse Jobs

1. Metaverse World Designers
2. Avatar Designers
3. Metaverse Storefront Creators, Developers, and Operators
4. Metaverse Law Enforcement
5. DAO Attorneys

Cryptocurrency

6. Crypto Coaches and Advisors
7. Crypto Mortgage Specialists
8. Decentralization Managers

Future Entertainment

9. Robot Personality Engineers
10. Macro VR Projection Artists
11. Entertainment Trends Analyzer

Commercial Drone Industry

12. Swarmbot Engineers
13. Swarmbot Entertainers
14. Drone Command Center Operators

Smart Cities

15. Insect, Rodent, and Snake Monitors
16. Noise Analyzers
17. Police Drone Operators

Healthcare

18. Amnesia Surgeons – Doctors who are skilled in removing bad memories or destructive behavior.
19. Memory Augmentation Therapists – Entertainment is all about the great memories it creates. Creating a better grade of memories can dramatically change who we are and pave the way for an entirely new class of humans.
20. Digital Implant Architects
21. Genetic Troubleshooters
22. Body Part Fabricators
23. AI Health Managers

Digital Twins

24. Sensor Engineers
25. Remote Operation Designers
26. Digital Twin Command Centers

Big Data

27. Privacy Strategists
28. Personal Data Managers, Archivists, and Protectors
29. Blockchain Designers
30. Vulnerabilities Analyst

3D Printed Houses

31. 3D Print Architects, Designers, and Engineers
32. Fabrication Engineers
33. Site Prep and Planning Crew

Autonomous Transportation

34. Future Highway Architects and Designers
35. Traffic Analyzers
36. Drone Taxi Ground Crew

Cultured Meat Industry

37. Growth Process Technician
38. Vat Managers
39. Demand Tracking Planners

Future Education

40. AI Memory Assessment Engineers
41. AI Coach-Bot Designers
42. AI Teacher-Bot Developers

Future Agriculture

43. Soil Analyzers, Preppers, and Managers
44. Crop Techs
45. Harvester Team Planners and Supervisors
46. Irrigation Managers

Commercial Space Industries

47. Space-based Power Generators
48. Asteroid Trackers
49. Space Pilots
50. Space Journey Attendants

Robots

51. AI Capabilities Engineer
52. Robot Classification Gurus – Different laws will apply to different classifications of robots
53. Operator Certification Specialists

Other

54. De-extinction Engineers
55. Can We / Should We Ethicists
56. Ransomware Hostage Negotiators
57. Ransomware Police

As we’ve discussed in earlier columns, our primary and secondary school systems need to be thinking outside the box. That includes K-12, trade schools, and colleges. Each one should continually evaluate and revise their curricula and major courses of study so that we’re well-prepared to fill future jobs like these – and the hundreds of others that come to mind – so we can fully employ our future workforce and meet the needs of future societies.

If you ask ten different people what were the most important inventions in all history, you’ll likely get ten different answers.

Here’s one pretty good list from National Geographic that would be hard to argue with:

1. Printing press
2. Light bulb
3. Airplane
4. Personal computer
5. Vaccines
6. Automobile
7. Clock
8. Telephone
9. Refrigeration
10. Camera

Here’s another that includes several of the same items plus the nail and the compass, and it even goes a bit further back in time to give credit to the inventor of the wheel – a very good addition. And here’s one more, this one remembering to include the gas-powered tractor and anesthesia. Good catch.

Now, I’m not saying it’s easier to be a historian than a futurist, but it’s probably less complicated to look backward at one’s leisure to acknowledge breakthrough technologies than it is to predict new ones at a time when so many technologies are on the cusp.

Debates about the significance of historical breakthroughs are academic exercises or something one does with friends over a glass of wine.

But consideration of the merits and ultimate utility of pending and future breakthroughs takes place in boardrooms with billions of dollars on the line. After all, things that seem destined to be extraordinary and ultimately commonplace may prove to be a bust. Supersonic transport comes to mind, even though it’s probably too early to give up on that.

But I don’t mind going out on a limb in predicting what the most significant emerging technologies will be over the next ten years. These are the twelve I’m watching, and I think you should be as well:

1. Autonomous Transportation

I’ve become convinced that autonomous transportation will be the most disruptive technology in all of history. On this topic, most people right away think of cars and trucks as a first step. In fact, those may be the last autonomous vehicles to be fully developed and embraced due to the relatively complex and unpredictable environment they’ll be operating in.

But we’ve already come a long way in other modes of transportation. Unmanned rockets are delivering satellites to space orbit and supplies to the international space station. Soon we’ll see unmanned cargo ships plying the oceans. Submarines will follow shortly. Commercial jets are nearly autonomous now and under computerized control for much of each journey.

And, yes, eventually we’ll see wide-spread autonomous, dry land transportation – especially once we get past the mindset that perfect safety is the only acceptable option.

Add all of this together and not only will transportation be turned on its head, but we’ll also have massive redesign of our buildings, airports, seaports, highways, and cities themselves to accommodate it.

2. Artificial Intelligence

AI certainly isn’t an emerging technology, but what will be new is the extent it will be a part of nearly every other emerging technology. AI is the basis of computer learning. Faster computers with access to more data will enhance nearly every aspect of our lives: transportation, healthcare, business, national security, entertainment, and more.

We’ll begin to view AI as a commodity – almost like a utility – that’s delivered into every home, office, device, car, and highway in our world.

I’ve done multiple interviews on the Futurati Podcast with AI experts like David Jilk, Kristinn Thórisson, and Roman Yampolskiy which have greatly informed my thinking on the transformative potential of this technology.

3. Blockchain

Blockchain technology will soon become an element of our behind-the-scenes infrastructure for nearly every kind of transaction (defined in the broadest sense) that requires the secure transfer and maintenance of assets or information. It’s hard to imagine any industry that won’t be impacted as they strive to becoming more secure and efficient. If an industry relies on contracts, financial transactions, personal identification information, or asset management, for example, blockchain technology will be working in the background.

Is blockchain the final word in IT security? Unfortunately no. Blockchain can be hacked, but it’s not worth losing sleep over. As long as we rely on technology, i.e., computers and the internet, we’ll have cyber thieves. We need to accept that we’ll always be in a cycle of smart people developing secure systems that other smart people quickly learn to exploit. But, we’re continually raising the bar in the process.

4. Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is one of the primary applications and earliest adopters of blockchain technology. Soon, you won’t need to understand blockchain to use cryptocurrency; it will be as easy and natural and using a credit card. The currency behind it, though, will be blockchain-based. Bitcoin was the first, but the emerging crypto economy is now valued at over $2 trillion. This means over $2T in economic expansion, with no governmental strings attached, and we’re just getting started.

Regulators will eventually accede to this inevitability and implement buffers and guideposts to prevent the kind of valuation volatility and scams that have caused most people to stay away from engaging in cryptocurrency. Increasingly, nations will transform their currencies to digital, doing away with pesky paper and even peskier coinage. Our personal cryptocurrency wallets will typically have a variety of currencies at our disposal.

5. CRISPR

That’s “clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats,” by the way, the emerging science of genetic manipulation using DNA splicing. We looked at this several weeks ago in the context of de-extincting a version of a Woolly Mammoth by splicing its preserved DNA into an Asian elephant.

That’s just the tip of the CRISPR iceberg, though. The emerging CRISPR toolset will expand our capabilities to customize embryos to optimize human beings in many ways. In just a few years, a pregnant woman will have the option of going to a geneticist to discuss certain “enhancement options” for her unborn child. They’ll also be able to remove problematic genes in order to reduce the likelihood of certain diseases and physical conditions.

6. Metaverse

This is one of the most fascinating advances I’ve had the opportunity to explore in a long time. The metaverse is essentially Internet 3.0, maybe even 10.0, based on an increasingly robust infrastructure that can support the presence of an alternate reality we can experience for ourselves. We see bits and pieces of it now, with concerts, online gaming, and virtual offices.

But ultimately, we’ll have metaverses that are as real and expansive as any Matrix or Ready Player One scenario. It’s not a stretch to say that in the future, we’ll be taking virtual vacations in the metaverse – spending a week’s salary with a metaverse agency to experience an African safari or an Alaskan cruise, enjoying the sights and sounds and the company of our fellow travelers.

7. Touchable Mixed Reality

This is an evolutionary development with metaverse implications. First, there was virtual reality (VR) – a virtual world, complete with sights and sounds (and only sights and sounds) experienced with the specialized headset. Next was augmented reality (AR) – in which we experienced the real world with virtual objects overlaying them (e.g., Pokémon Go). The next step is mixed reality (MR) – in which real and virtual worlds are combined. MR allows us to overlay physical items into the virtual environment.

MR will be a gamechanger in … well, games of course, and also in numerous entertainment and learning environments from engineering to medicine.

8. Living Robots

Despite the name, this innovation isn’t as creepy or eyebrow-raising as it sounds. While this phrase may conjure up the image of human clones, remember that a “robot” is simply a controlled, programmable machine that can carry out a complex task.

But instead of metal casings and hard-wired circuitry, they’re made with biological tissue. The earliest versions of living robots can best be characterized as “programmable organisms,” blobs of tissue made from biological stem cells that are manipulated and shaped to be living organisms that perform tasks. Initially, we’ll program them, for example, to deliver medicine within a human body or clean up radioactive waste in hazardous sites. Beyond that, though, who knows!

9. Hyper-individualized Education

Education is a $2 trillion annual business that operates in much the same way it did 200 years ago with large classrooms filled with students who are all taught the same way and, for the most part, the same thing. But classroom technology has been advancing rapidly, especially during the pandemic.

Ultimately, we’ll have massive databases of teachable material from which students and their advisers can craft a unique curriculum and even a unique degree. The material will be delivered in a way that the student can best relate to. Lectures. Virtual field trips. Group discussions (see metaverse discussion above). One-on-one tutorials with an AI teacher bot.

Degrees will be obtained more quickly, and graduates will have a much better-defined specialty that will minimize the time spent by their first employer in on-the-job training.

10. Hyper-individualized Medicine

This is also known as personalized medicine. Doctors in the near future will collaborate with us on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options based on our own unique genomic profile. With the benefit of this information, they’ll know what conditions we’re susceptible to and that must be monitored closely. And when a condition presents itself, they’ll know which drugs or other treatments will be effective, ineffective, or even harmful.

We’ve seen some early successes with personalized medicine with oncology therapies, and it will ultimately extend significantly beyond that.

11. Internet for Everyone

With communication satellites filling our low-Earth orbit, people in more and more of the far corners of the Earth will have access to information through the internet. As long as local regimes don’t try to limit citizen access, information will be more widespread and transferrable – for better or worse, but hopefully more for the better.

Who knows how many 21st century potential Einsteins and Mozarts will emerge when there is greater exposure to information and ideas? With a truly World Wide Web, we’ll see tremendous growth in global GDP, and maybe as I call it, in GNK – global net knowledge that will drive mankind’s progress forward, bringing light and enlightenment where it’s needed most.

12. Lab Grown Everything

While lab-grown meats have gotten all the attention, we’ll soon have similar processes for lab-growing construction material, fabrication materials, and much more. Our labs will make tremendous progress in speed-growing natural materials that have the same cellular structure as the “real” items that have previously only been grown at the rate of nature.

This will be a huge ecological and social win as we no longer will need to mine diamonds, clear cut forests, or maintain massive cattle feedlots, for example. We’ll also have new sources for medical and health products like breast milk, nutraceuticals, ointments, and more. This will cause short-term employment issues for sure, but once the science is worked out, the labs will essentially become factories and the workers there won’t need PhDs.

100 Years from Now

I can’t imagine a more fantastic future than if these technologies come to fruition and play out fully! And if this blog is somehow discoverable in 100 years, I hope another futurist will see it and chuckle about our simplicity or, even better, note how we identified 2021 trends that did indeed shape the world they’re living in.

At first glance, the emergence of “ghost kitchens” may not seem to be an earth-shattering trend. Other equally foreboding terms for this industry include “dark kitchens” and “shadow kitchens.”

But there’s nothing nefarious or creepy about them. Ghost kitchens are simply industrial kitchens that prepare food for delivery on behalf of a restaurant or a restaurant brand. They tend to be located near their customers and are served by shared driver delivery systems or the more common companies like UberEats or DoorDash.

There are several different models. In some cases, restaurants rent out a portion of their underutilized kitchen space to other food preparers. In other scenarios, the kitchens are found within shared commercial warehouse-like space, a “commissary concept” similar to the WeWork and Regus model for office space.

An alternative approach calls for establishing a ghost kitchen facility to support the delivery service of a single brand. Reef Kitchens, for example, just announced it would host 700 ghost kitchens for Wendy’s at its facilities in North America and the U.K. Most major chains are doing the same or plan to follow suit, from Wingstop to Five Guys.

Another ghost kitchen company, Kitchen United, is taking a slightly different approach by placing ghost kitchens in more visible spaces in grocery stores, complete with kiosks or apps that allow shoppers to order takeout meals or have them delivered. The company recently announced a partnership with Kroger. Ghost Kitchen Brands has a similar arrangement with Walmart.

Why Ghosting?

Whatever the approach, the logic is clear. Consumers want their prepared food delivered. The average full-service restaurant is maintaining two food service models under one roof – one for their dine-in customers and one for their take-out or delivery customers. The latter used to be a sideline, an add-on anomaly; now that takeout and delivery is far more common, or even dominant in some restaurants, trying to do both from a single facility can be disruptive and inefficient.

The ghost kitchen phenomenon will be the norm very shortly. But it’s interesting to step back and consider what this trend says about us and our future.

What Do Ghost Kitchens Say about the Evolution of Change?

Lest anyone assume ghost kitchens are entirely a COVID-driven phenomena, the practice was in place and steadily growing several years prior to the restaurant industry upheaval of 2020. Then, in the midst of COVID, 60% of U.S. consumers reported ordering delivery or pickup at least once per week. Keep in mind, that’s call-ahead or app ordering, not drive-through service.

There’s no question the dramatic growth in ghost kitchens is an outgrowth of COVID. During 2020, out of necessity, we were eating more from home. And out of necessity, in order to survive, many restaurants relied on takeout and delivery. Some even thrived with this model and don’t see the need now to go back to offering on-premise dining.

From the delivery side of this model, services like DoorDash and UberEats were a godsend for individuals who were necessarily shut-in during 2020 and pleasant convenience for many others.

COVID is having a lasting, long-term impact on the trajectory of many aspects of our future – from healthcare, to politics, to work, and now to leisure activity. The emergence of ghost kitchens is another example of how COVID has dramatically accelerated some trends, like working from home, which we explored earlier this year.

Change is inevitable, and a crisis inevitably accelerates change.

What Do Ghost Kitchens Say about Consumers?

The shift to food delivery is an indication that we increasingly value time and convenience over experiences. Yes, there will always be an opportunity for an enjoyable sit-down experience in a more toney and pricey restaurant. And trips to faster-food restaurant chain establishments will continue to be valued as a family outing and an opportunity for everyone to unplug and socialize. But those instances will never rebound to their pre-pandemic peak.

Related to that, ghost kitchens also are an indication that we are becoming increasingly reliant on and comfortable with mobile technology and service apps. Many people resist learning these tools until they have to. And recently an older generation – just to generalize – had to and they came to love it.

One recent trend, though, that may be mildly disrupted by ghost kitchens is the loss of niche, single-location, family-owned restaurants. If these establishments continue to rely on street-front space and foot traffic, they’ll be in trouble, and they will decline. But if they pool resources with others to share common kitchen space, the economies may be enough for some of them to survive – at least as the provider of a delivered product.

What Do Ghost Kitchens Say about the Job Market?

Like most retail industries, restaurants are having difficulty fully staffing up. Whether people have left those niches of the job market or are just waiting out these uncertain times, retailers, including restaurants, will need to replace employees with apps and downsizing arrangements that define the ghost kitchen model.

The human element of food preparation and meal delivery remains … for now. Until they’re automated as well, jobs in both areas will shift to independent contract arrangements.

Five Additional Future Implications of Ghost Kitchens

1. Teens and less-educated workers will bear the brunt of the loss of restaurant labor-intensive jobs – functions like wait-staffing, busing, and hosting.
2. Consumers will continue to have access to wonderful, varied food thanks to ghost kitchens, but they’ll lose out on some opportunities for memorable dining out experiences.
3. As restaurants close their street-front locations and consolidate kitchens, commercial property will be even more devalued, with the kind of vacant and empty storefronts like we’ve already seen with malls and movie theaters.
4. Some restaurants will thrive. They’ll be able to focus on product and food innovation without worrying about all the overhead costs and facility maintenance headaches.
5. The economies that restaurants can achieve by reducing their footprint and sharing space will be offset by delivery charges. Consumers won’t come out ahead.

And last, in some way, somehow, Amazon will try to find a way to corner the ghost kitchen industry and then tie it to a resurrected Amazon Restaurants program!