Richard Skellett established Digital Anthropology originally as a campaign and lobbying voice to raise awareness of how automation would affect the entire employment landscape.
As a future of work expert, Richard wanted to highlight the issues surrounding widespread implementation of AI, Robotics and Machine Learning. He was keen to ensure that from government to corporates, public services to employees themselves, everyone would be taking stock and implementing strategies to cope with the changes.
The figures are stark and Covid has accelerated what was already a fast rate of change. Richard felt that the time to act was now by creating a charity that would be ready to take up the challenge of displacement.
The reality is that many roles will no longer exist, and many roles will only be needed part-time.
Richard believes that government, companies and individuals all have important roles to play.
The government need to look at education and how they can focus on areas where there will be sustainable employment.
Companies need to be considerate of their staff when implementing automation, they need to augment where possible and support their employees in upskilling and retraining.
Individuals will also need to work differently; they will need to become more flexible and resilient and work multi-portfolio.
Digital Anthropology sets out to support people and through training and advice lines enable them to gain employment and survive displacement.
Richard said ‘I am delighted to be making this move towards creating a positive outcome for people facing displacement. We will be approaching companies involved with automation to work with us to establish the funds required to make this a reality.’