11 Really Cool Jobs That Don’t Exist Today, But Will Soon
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will likely replace approximately 85 million jobs by 2025. However, the report also reveals that 97 million new jobs will be created during the same timeframe. In the last few years, virtual reality, AI, and advanced robotics have advanced dramatically, creating new career possibilities. In the long run, technological change drives economic growth and productivity and improves living standards. The process, however, involves “creative destruction.”
The advent of new technologies has destroyed jobs in some industries, especially low-skilled jobs while creating jobs in different industries in need of diverse skills. The digital revolution has drastically changed the labor market and jobs. Many routine manual and cognitive tasks can now be automated by replacing workers. As a result, new technologies will complement and create more non-routine cognitive and social tasks, creating more productive work and job opportunities.
You’ll want to focus on high-touch, strategic aspects of your job to remain competitive; robots can do a lot, but they can’t brainstorm, motivate or inspire people. Imagine working alongside robots, doing creative and thoughtful work—the kind only humans can do. It’s impossible to say what the future will hold. However, these 11 examples of jobs that could likely exist in the future help us understand how the current trends could unfold over the next few decades. Even you could land one of these jobs at some point—if you start working toward it today.
1. Chief Productivity Officer
Driving efficiencies will be vital at the individual, departmental and organizational levels. And officer-level positions will be important for companies of all sizes, says Raj Narayanaswamy, co-founder and co-CEO at Replicon, a company that provides the world’s first knowledge workforce management solution. “People in officer-level positions must be comfortable working with data and offering recommendations on how to improve productivity,” he says.
2. Excess Capacity Broker
As part of the push for productivity, organizations may examine ways to monetize idle assets, such as renting out owned space or machinery, says author and futurist Julie Austin. An excess capacity broker might analyze an organization, identify usable assets, and locate organizations willing to pay for them.
3. Remote Drone Drivers and Pilots
How great would it be to send packages while seated at work? Self-driving trucks and delivery drones suggest that it is the way of the future. As a result, truck drivers will likely be less in demand in the transportation sector, while the demand for remote drone pilots and drivers will increase. According to Zach Howard, Business Development Manager at Nonstop Brokerage Inc., delivery drones will soon be considered standard technology. Moreover, delivery companies will soon need to hire and maintain a large fleet of drones with trained pilots who are capable of maneuvering the cutting-edge delivery environment.
4. Private Industry Air Traffic Control
As part of these drone fleets, companies would need to manage their air traffic control (ATC) systems, which may cross interstate or international boundaries. Thus, these companies would have to negotiate and cooperate with governments, municipalities and other relevant stakeholders.
5. Medical Mentor
With the trend toward value-based care, there’s significant room for helpers, advocates and mentors in health care, says Jim Lebret, Senior Medical Director at Mount Sinai Health System, New York and Director of code team leaders at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. “We didn’t have physicians assistants and nurse practitioners years ago, and now multiple roles are continuing to emerge,” he says. A medical mentor is someone who may check in after appointments to ensure that patients follow through on recommendations from doctors about exercise, nutrition or medications and help people navigate barriers that may be keeping them from success. 
6. Self-driving Car Mechanic
Self-driving cars will eliminate many jobs, such as taxi drivers and courier delivery personnel. Still, they will create a few as well, Austin says. But these cars won’t be self-fixing, so mechanics will still be in business (in the short-term, at least). The mechanic of the future will require a combination of old-school mechanical ability and comfort level to work in the tech culture.
7. Autonomous Transportation Specialist
If our future includes self-driving cars, drones and boards that actually hover, cities and towns will need humans to monitor this neo-transit. People will need to integrate these autonomous vehicles into current systems and then monitor results, Austin says.
8. Cybersecurity Threat Specialist
Online attacks are increasing as technology develops. In order to develop a defensive strategy against cyber attacks, firms will need to research the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) of each one, according to Kayne McGladrey, Director of Security and Information Technology at Pensar Development. “The duty of the threat attribution specialist will be to uncover the common features across various types of digital threats,” he adds.
9. Human-technology Integration Specialist
These people would teach others how to leverage and use the vast array of technologies to improve the quality of their lives, says Charles Grantham, a teacher at the Community Design Institute. A human-technology integration specialist is an IT specialist role. This professional would holistically examine the different work-related and consumer technologies a person uses and streamline devices and platforms to optimize their output.
10. Virtual Reality Programmer
Demand for virtual reality technology is growing exponentially. Firms will need computer programmers and designers to construct these new worlds for all virtual reality and augmented reality activities, according to Andrew Selepak, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Telecommunication at the University of Florida. Firms must first create virtual reality, which will need training and equipping an increasing number of professionals with the necessary abilities.
11. End-of-Life Coach
Baby boomers are approaching the end of their lives in this decade or the coming decade. Hence, there will be greater emphasis on how people would want to spend their last days. An end-of-life coach can help individuals and families make better decisions on how to spend the last weeks and months of life. “Right now, there’s a lot of excessive treatment at the end of someone’s life,” says Lebret, a life coach. “In the next few years, there will be a massive shift toward people wanting to add more life to their days, instead of days to their life.” These coaches will help people explore their personal values and medical options so they can create the kind of end-of-life they want.
In Conclusion
As workplaces continue to evolve in 2023, it is impossible to predict how changing economic and business trends will affect organizational priorities and trends. Throughout this sure-footed transition, organizations will be on the front lines. As a result, they’ll have to automate processes and reevaluate strategies, identify what roles are needed, what can be redeployed, and what needs new talent. Though organizations are discovering effective ways to prepare their resources for a new work environment, workforces will need to prepare for a rapidly changing work environment.
Workforces will have to reset their intuition with evolving workplaces and learn on-demand skills to grow professionally. Of course, the demand for human labor will continue, but workers everywhere will have to rethink the traditional notions of where, how, and what they can bring to their jobs.
