Internet of Things set to be a major jobs driver: Cisco

Other new jobs that are being or will be created in the era that machines can “talk” with other machines include digital-experience architects, “cloud brokers”, industrial network engineers, machine-learning scientists, business transformation practitioners, platform developers, robotics specialists, enterprise architects, network programmers, data scientists, customer makers and cognitive engineers, she said at a press conference held in Dubai last week for the “Internet of Things World Forum 2015”.

“Prepare for jobs that do not even exist today,” she said.

The Cisco executive said cybersecurity would be “No 1” in terms of job demand for the IoT era.

To tap this growing demand, Israel, for example, has made a big foray into the cybersecurity industry, and has decided to work with Cisco to create a cybersecurity university. 

Cisco, a networking-equipment giant, and many other leading companies and institutions – from IBM, GE and Intel, to Gartner and McKinsey & Co – have been touting IoT as the next big thing in both the business and technology worlds, since more objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate.

According to McKinsey, a global consulting firm, the resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks.

Nevertheless, at the same time, fears of security and privacy breaches are prevalent.

At the Cisco-sponsored event, many industry executives expressed their concerns over the risks of cyber-attack or the leaking of data shared on a digital hub.

To embrace the IoT era, Beliveau-Dunn said every organisation had to think about how it could become a “more-technology” organisation, and figure out how to use technology to drive a new business model.

Moreover, to realise the full value of IoT, it has become critical that an organisation has the capability to connect to a talent pool, as well as being able to re-skill its workforce, she said, adding, “People are the critical factor to make this [IoT benefits] happen.”

 

Urgent need to boost skills for IoT jobs

Beliveau-Dunn is also chief executive officer of the Internet of Things Talent Consortium, a global coalition of businesses, recruiters and educational institutes set up with a task to re-skilling a million workers by 2020 to prepare them for the IoT era. 

“With digitalisation impacting every single industry, there is an urgent need to help individuals working in these industries re-skill and at the same time up-skill the next generation of talent to be ready for digital and IoT jobs,” she explained. 

The goal of the consortium is to bring industries together to drive transformation of the digital workforce.

Beliveau-Dunn said half of all jobs in the future would require technical acumen. Doctors and nurses, for example, would have to learn how to work with robots. 

Ability to become a constant learner has become very necessary, she added.

Inbar Lasser-Raab, vice president for infrastructure and digital solutions marketing at Cisco, said Gartner – a tech advisory firm – estimated IoT suppliers would generate |incremental revenue exceeding US$300 billion (Bt10.8 trillion) in 2020, which would lead to an ever-increasing need for specialised talent.