The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts - Hardcover

Susskind, Richard; Susskind, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198713398 ISBN 13: 9780198713395

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

This book predicts the decline of today's professions and describes the people and systems that will replace them. In an Internet society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century.

The Future of the Professions explains how 'increasingly capable systems' -- from telepresence to artificial intelligence -- will bring fundamental change in the way that the 'practical expertise' of specialists is made available in society.

The authors challenge the 'grand bargain' -- the arrangement that grants various monopolies to today's professionals. They argue that our current professions are antiquated, opaque and no longer affordable, and that the expertise of their best is enjoyed only by a few. In their place, they propose six new models for producing and distributing expertise in society.

The book raises important practical and moral questions. In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks, what are the prospects for employment, who should own and control online expertise, and what tasks should be reserved exclusively for people?

Based on the authors' in-depth research of more than ten professions, and illustrated by numerous examples from each, this is the first book to assess and question the relevance of the professions in the 21st century.

About this title

About the Author

Professor Richard Susskind OBE is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to international professional firms and national governments. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law, Strategy and Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute. His numerous books include the best-sellers, The End of Lawyers? (OUP, 2008) and Tomorrow's Lawyers (OUP, 2013), his work has been translated into more than 10 languages, and he has been invited to speak in over 40 countries.

Daniel Susskind is a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, from where he has two degrees in economics. Previously, he worked for the British Government - in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and as a Senior Policy Adviser at the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

Review

"An act of delicious iconoclasm"

-- Prospect Magazine

"In The Future of the Professions, father-and-son authors Richard and Daniel Susskind do a remorselessly effective job of demolishing the self-deception most people engage in when comparing themselves to machines."

-- Financial Times

"The authors are undoubtedly right that the professions will change more in the next quarter-century than they have in the previous three."

-- The Economist

"The Future of the Professions is a paradox that only a human mind could appreciate: the inevitable death of the professions is presented in an expert, original and witty work by two professionals whose skills (in thinking, writing and consultancy) are unlikely any time soon to be replicated by a machine."

-- David Pannick, The Times

"Remarkable work"

-- Tom Watson, The Guardian

"This is a bold book ... The Future of the Professions helps us to recognise the professions' current methods as convoluted, self-serving rituals designed to wrap simple tasks in mystique."

-- Giles Wilkes, Prospect

"Richard and Daniel Susskind's The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts belongs to a new genre of reflection and prediction. It is no Luddite lament for a world we have lost, but surveys rapid change with insight and optimism."

-- Jonathan Clark, Times Literary Supplement

"Both a good read and a good starter for strategic planning in professional firms"

-- Chris Yapp, Future Tech Blog

"I suggest that everyone who considers themselves 'professional' reads this book, especially those who are aged, say, 20-45, who need to secure their role in the new world of work. The authors predict that "our professions will be dismantled incrementally". If they are right, todays lawyers need to prepare for it, and the sooner the better."

-- Dan Bindman, Legal Futures

"A fascinating and challenging book"

-- Medium

"The study is exceptionally well informed and important contribution to thinking about the future of professional work"

-- Network Review

"As the saying is, the future is now and we ignore it at our peril. Please read this book."

-- Law Skills

"The book is written in a relaxed, flowing and easily-consumable style ... a read of The Future of the Professions is time very well-spent."

-- Jeremy Hopkins, Future of Law

"Impeccably researched and compelling ... The Future of the Professions is a must read for all professionals and policy makers"

-- Law and Courts in an Online World

"Impressive new book"

-- Edward Fennell, The Times

"Perhaps the forthcoming tidal wave of technology set to engulf us all will throw up new opportunities for the legal profession which is probably why just about every lawyer in London, so we are told, has bought a copy of this challenging, provocative, timely and important book. If you care about the future of your profession and wish to add further comment to the raging controversies surrounding it, better get yourself a copy now."

-- Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richard Green Chambers

"Everyone interested in the future well-being of society must read this thoroughly researched and compelling book--to understand how technology can and will be used to enable the public to do far more for themselves. In reshaping our system of justice so that it can more cost-effectively underpin our democratic society and its prosperity, I have had the benefit of the Susskinds core thesis how to use technology not simply to enable the legal professions to do better what they now do, but to reshape justice for the benefit of the public."

-- Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

"If the Susskinds are right, we are at the start of a social revolution. Technology has begun to transform social class, economic activity, political discourse, working life and the limits of human activity. In The Future of the Professions they relentlessly and unyieldingly but also entertainingly and elegantly set about proving their point. I started knowing that their argument was important, I finished convinced that it was right. This is a necessary book. It was necessary that it be written and necessary that you read it."

-- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

"I know of no better book for anyone interested in the future of skilled jobs and society. Drawing on an astounding range of sources and the latest research, The Future of the Professions offers vital insights into the unprecedented disruption facing all the professions."

-- Professor Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development and Director of the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

"In this magisterial survey Richard and Daniel Susskind demolish each profession's faith in its immutable uniqueness. Instead they trace inexorable and universal forces that will drive disintermediation, deconstruction and disruption. Written with scholarly thoroughness, this is an urgent manifesto and practical blueprint for the leaders of every professional firm."

-- Philip Evans, Senior Partner & BCG Fellow, The Boston Consulting Group

"This book should be shared and discussed among students and all professionals in all different industries. Recommended." -Choice

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0198713398
• ISBN 13: 9780198713395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368