What will the economy of the future look like? How can we prepare for it? What impact is technology having on work and the job market? Are we heading towards a world without work? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Daniel Susskind in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

An expert on the impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, on work and society, Daniel Susskind is a Research Professor of Economics at King’s College London, and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University. He is the the author of the book A World Without Work, described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future”, co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions. His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. Previously, Susskind worked in the British Government – as a policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, as a policy analyst in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and as a senior policy adviser in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

In this episode, Susskind discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the role of technology in the various kinds of work we do. He looks at how technological progress will impact the lives of people who depend on paid work for their income, and considers how many people could be displaced or left behind by the economy of the future. He also examines how a world with less work available to a larger number of people will affect them emotionally and not just financially. Finally, Susskind discusses what kinds of jobs and careers will be open to future generations, and what skills and capabilities they will require of them, in a conversation well worth listening to.

More on this topic

• The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, Daniel Susskind and Richard Susskind, 2015


• A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond, Daniel Susskind, 2020


• Daniel Susskind on “A World Without Work”


• Daniel Susskind on “3 myths about the future of work (and why they're not true)”


• Daniel Susskind on “the impact of coronavirus on the global workforce and how technology has transformed the future of work”


• Daniel Susskind on “technology, automation and how we should respond”


• Daniel Susskind on the future of the workplace


• Daniel Susskind on how “Robots probably won't take our jobs—for now”