The fast-growing development of Artificial Intelligence stimulates emerging of new professions. We are entering the era of data architects, data journalists, digital linguists, and developers of the “smart environment.” Senior Partner of the technology company Roosh, Sergey Kartashov (Sergejs Kartasovs) comments on what we are expecting in the near future and what specializations we will have to master.

According to Kartashov, the Covid-19 pandemic not only did not slow down but, on the contrary, became a trigger for high-tech development and innovations. On average, 9 out of 14 new professions created during the coronavirus pandemic involve mastering digital skills. People have switched to the remote working mode, as well as education, trade, banking services, and communications have also become “digital.”

In June, the magazine Vice published a sensational article, “The Cult of Busyness,” which insisted that employees who had switched to work from home mostly no longer wanted to return to their offices. This tendency pushed further rates of digitalization, and the volume of Internet traffic consumption increased. Soon, the Internet will reach the most remote corners of the planet and will become available to everyone. And when those who are 25-30 years old today and are confident users of gadgets become the oldest generation, digitalization will reach its peak.

Sergey Kartashov (Sergejs Kartasovs) believes that in this context, the competitive advantage in the labor market will be on the side of specialists who are able to work with high-tech systems. First of all, it is about AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and MR (mixed reality) systems. The headlines of recent news testify to this as well. According to the media, Meta (formerly Facebook) opened access to its metaverse Horizon Worlds, and Barbados acquired a diplomatic mission in the metaverse.

Virtual reality immerses us in an artificial digital environment where we can move and interact. Augmented reality imposes digital information on physical objects; the mixed one allows for acting in a real and virtual environment in parallel.

“Therefore, the profession of a 3D virtual reality artist will become a very real specialization in the nearest future because the demand for 3D modeling will only be increasing in various areas—from gaming and school education to surgery, behavioral psychotherapy, and archeology. For example, two months ago, Microsoft along with the Ministry of Culture and Sports in Greece, introduced the world a virtual copy of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games. It is possible to walk along the streets of the ancient Greek polis both via a computer and a smartphone – you simply install an application. There is no time machine yet, but VR tools already allow people to plunge into the past,” says Sergey Kartashov.

According to the businessman, digital production is another trend that will give rise to new specializations. In particular, the production of digital twins.

“Let’s say the designers need to conduct a risky field experiment, but you cannot endanger the spacecraft—it is too expensive. What to do? We need a digital twin—this is a 3D model, a virtually exact copy of the product, in all respects corresponding to the original. The development of digital twins is a very promising area that saves money and covers costs, which is equally essential for both high-tech production and practical medicine,” notes Sergey Kartashov.

However, there are many different parameters to consider when creating a digital twin. Big data analysts will cope with this task—and that is another relevant profession for the upcoming years. Such a specialist identifies hidden patterns within the system, which helps manufacturers optimize their performance.

The demand for digital linguists will grow in the near future—specialists who process data in languages ​​that are natural for machine learning algorithms, including neural networks. For example, to teach algorithms to identify errors, a digital linguist processes a huge layer of textual data, in which he marks up the correct and incorrect use of words.

“Digital and natural languages ​​have a lot in common. These are sign systems with their own rules. Therefore, a good digital linguist requires the same qualities as a classical one: a good memory, impeccable literacy, systemic thinking, perseverance, and the ability to focus on performing monotonous work,” emphasizes Sergey Kartashov.

The “smart home” system functions thanks to the Internet of Things, a technology that uses sensors to link dozens of different devices together in one chain. The same concept will soon be applied in creating smart factories, smart stations, and other technological objects of urban infrastructure operating without human intervention. For example, the diagnostics of urban communications can be carried out without interfering with their integrity.

AI will revolutionize medicine, too. Back in 2012, Fortune calculated that in the future, Artificial Intelligence will perform up to 80% of therapeutic actions instead of a doctor, but the machine will never be able to completely supersede a human. According to Sergey Kartashov (Sergejs Kartasovs), AI will become a reliable assistant for diagnostics, collecting data about body functioning, identifying pathologies, and treating diseases.

“So, the goal of the most daring medical startups is to try to build sensors into a human body that can measure the main indicators of the body and signal deviations from the norm. In Sweden, for example, this year, they developed a chip containing the personal data of a COVID Certificate. But dystopian thinkers, like Yuval Noah Harari, call such innovations ‘subcutaneous surveillance’ and actively criticize them,” he says.

The IT development pace today is so high that the disappearance of traditional professions and the emergence of new ones is a natural process that opens up new horizons and opportunities. After all, this has already happened in history. And in order to replace telephone operators, chimney sweeps, and ice carriers, there came programmers, marketers, and SMM specialists. And for each deceased speciality, five new ones always come.