The Future of the Professions

Abstract

This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them. In an Internet society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century. The Future of the Professions explains how 'increasingly capable systems' -- from telepresence to artificial intelligence -- will bring fundamental change in the way that the 'practical expertise' of specialists is made available in society. The authors challenge the 'grand bargain' -- the arrangement that grants various monopolies to today's professionals. They argue that our current professions are antiquated, opaque and no longer affordable, and that the expertise of their best is enjoyed only by a few. In their place, they propose six new models for producing and distributing expertise in society. The book raises important practical and moral questions. In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks, what are the prospects for employment, who should own and control online expertise, and what tasks should be reserved exclusively for people? Based on the authors' in-depth research of more than ten professions, and illustrated by numerous examples from each, this is the first book to assess and question the relevance of the professions in the 21st century.

Subordinate Activation Tactics: Semi-professionals and Micro-level Institutional Change in Professional Organizations

“…The same external pressures that are demanding micro-level institutional change in professional practice have also led to a proliferation of subordinate semi-professions across a wide range of work areas, because they have led managers of professional organizations to redistribute resources on the basis of competence rather than historical workforce hierarchies and roles (e.g., Nancarrow and Borthwick, 2006; Barrett et al, 2012; Currie et al, 2012). In this new environment, organizations are employing subordinate semi-professionals in large numbers (e.g., Susskind and Susskind, 2016; Barley, Bechky, and Milliken, 2017). Law firms are using paralegals to provide legal services in situations that previously required a lawyer (Brooks, 2011), accounting firms have replaced many of their certified public accountants with semi-professional tax preparers who rely on expert technology rather than formal training to deliver services to clients (Galperin, 2017), and universities have substituted administrative coordinators for research scientists with postgraduate degrees to monitor laboratory compliance (Huising, 2014a, 2014b).…”

Today's Market Needs Modernized Property Appraisers

“…The real estate market has to be analyzed and monitored to minimize the risk of crisis events. Renigier-Biłozor and Biłozor 2016 enhancement of technology and increasingly freely available market evidence, many of the steps in the valuation process -data collection, data analysis, and data formatting -are performed by computerized models and the valuation profession is seeing a progressive shift towards automated processes (Grover, 2016;RICS, 2016;Susskind & Susskind, 2015). Property appraisers often lack the required skills and knowledge to perform increasingly sophisticated market analyses.…”

Technology, innovation, employment and power: Does robotics and artificial intelligence really mean social transformation?

“…The ‘no-real-change’ position is very much a minority standpoint in the face of a second analytical position, namely that technology and society are in the process of radical transformation. Those who think this way take contrasting normative positions – optimistic (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014; Susskind and Susskind, 2015) or pessimistic (Ford, 2015; Huws, 2014; Spencer, 2016) – on whether such changes will improve or undermine economic welfare and social cohesion. Yet they share the belief that radical technological change is very real, and novel in its challenges and reverberations.…”

“…More recent research, however, indicates that some non-routine cognitive tasks are now being performed robotically, and that the service sector, source of most recent employment expansion, is under considerable threat (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014; Frey and Osborne, 2013). One of the most provocative versions of this argument is the claim that technology will transform the work of experts, dismantling the existing professions (Susskind and Susskind, 2015). The combination of robotic advantages in manual dexterity and precision is already influencing surgery and architecture, while robotic sensing and companionate robots also affect professional employment in health and community services (2015: 166–75).…”