The Future of Work

Our second public evidence session was themed around encouraging and harnessing innovation. We heard from Professor Rose Luckin from the UCL Knowledge Lab; Paul Wilmott, Global Head of Digital, McKinseys; and Gi Fernando, social entrepreneur and founder of Freeformers Ltd.

Automation, digitisation, artificial intelligence. We are on the brink of a new industrial revolution. I launched the Future of Work Commission last year as a response to this. The possibilities are endless - but so are the challenges.

It was a big week this week. The Future of Work commission held its first public evidence session in Westminster. I know we’re looking towards the future, and that future obviously includes technological advances that will allow people to connect remotely from all over the world. But at the moment, there’s still something special about getting people together in the same room, to talk in depth about the issues we want to consider. So I was excited about this.

In Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward a young Bostonian emerges from a state of suspended animation in the year 2000 and is startled to find the inequalities of his own era banished. A Utopian 21st-century America has abolished money, private enterprise and poverty—every industry is owned and managed for the benefit of all

Mark Carney was right to warn of the huge impact of technological change during his speech in Liverpool last night. Work is becoming more complex and uncertain, with machines doing jobs we thought only humans could do - but with new opportunities opening up as well. This is a challenge for all of us. 

On Small Business Saturday, we ask: what does it really mean to be a small business owner in 2016? Shopkeepers. Tradesmen. Hairdressers. Pub landlords. They're all small business owners. But so are hundreds of thousands of online store owners, freelance designers, self-employed delivery drivers. 

InnovationRCA has launched Our Place in the World, a challenge that will seek out and invest in the most interesting and innovative ideas and products in the field of social entrepreneurship. The theme for the inaugural year, The Future of Work, was chosen to coincide with a new independent commission on the future of work established by Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. 

The fourth industrial revolution will transform our world. Driverless cars, delivery droids and robots doctors that can diagnose illnesses are already a reality. But we are only just beginning to understand how new technology will affect the world of work. Old certainties are being destroyed as rapidly as new jobs and new industries are being created.

Labour’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson MP will tell Annual Conference on Tuesday he is setting up a new independent commission into the future of work, with a particular focus on the impact of automation. The commission will be co-chaired by Tom Watson and Helen Mountfield QC.