The workforce of the future will need to be more fluid and flexible in order to accommodate increasingly advanced machines, a General Electric official predicted this week.
Colin Parris, who leads GE's software and analytics research, told a USA Today podcast that the proliferation of the industrial Internet of Things will pose serious challenges for the job market.
Parris' work is dedicated to making maintaining and repairing expensive equipment -- from airplane engines to oil rigs -- more efficient. But he acknowledged that his research and other technological developments could eventually help make more and more jobs obsolete.
Parris said that society will need to adjust accordingly, in part by overcoming conventional perceptions of learning and employment.
"We think once a job disappears there's nothing I can do. That’s not true," Parris told the podcast. "We have the capability to learn, and learn faster. There will always be things for humans to do."
