Robots today tend to be good at one or two things. So far we haven’t seen the iPhone equivalent in robotics where people can build apps and the robot is capable of many things. That will happen well before 2040.

However, smart robots will still require an entire ecosystem of support staff to operate at peak efficiency. In much the same way a single passenger plane creates employment for dozens of people (pilots, flight attendants, ground crew, reservationists, ticket agents, etc.), our most versatile robots will require a team of support workers to optimize their performance.

• Robot maintenance
• Robot monitoring
• Robot operation techs
• Robot suppliers
• Robot programmers
• Robot UI/UX experts
• Robot ethicists
• Robot business developers

In many respects, data is the new oil. As a seemingly unlimited resource with the potential to create millions of new products, data will spawn hundreds of new job categories.

• Data-catters – sourcing new forms of data, acquiring rights, licensing to users
• Data detective
• Data frackers
• Data analytics
• Data monitors
• Data ethicists
• Data trust officers
• Data brokers

By 2040, large fleets of drones will be very common, as we will have surpassed the first billion-drone mark in the early 2030s. Drones will come in every possible shape and size, and since risks are high and so many things can go wrong, we will see many drone-related positions created for monitoring payloads, systems and optimizing traffic flow.

• Drone command center operators
• Drone taxi ground crew
• Traffic flow optimizers
• Drone maintenance and repair
• Aerial security teams
• Drone designers
• Drone programmers
• Drone salespeople

Yes, we will still have nurses and doctors in the future, but most of the job growth in the health industry will be surrounding the digitization of personal health and the optimization of human performance.

• Anti aging practitioners
• Brain augmentationists
• Nurses
• Aging assistants
• Gene sequencers
• Epigenetic therapists
• Brain neurostimulation professionals
• Genetic modification designers and engineers

Over the past few decades we have transitioned from a world where information was scarce and only the experts had access to it, to a time where information is plentiful but only the experts know what to pay attention to. Before 2040 there will be a similar transformation as we begin adding AI enhancements to our bodies and minds where only those skilled in the craft will be able to fully leverage the AI turbocharging we add to our capability mix.

• AI-enhanced freelance coaches and trainers
• AI-enhanced writers
• AI-enhanced musicians
• AI-enhanced artists
• AI-enhanced quantum programmers
• AI-enhanced accountants
• AI-enhanced cyber security experts
• AI-enhanced AI experts

 Just because the driver is gone doesn’t mean there’s no room for humans. In fact, just the opposite is true. Yes, it will eventually be possible to automate many of these positions out of business, but it will require thousands of iterative developments for increasingly narrow niche edge cases. In many situations we simply reach the point of diminishing returns where it’s far cheaper and easier to employ a person instead of building a robot to handle a situation that only occurs once in every million-car trips.

• Command center operators
• Payment and accounting department
• Circulation engineers
• Maintenance and repair
• Cleaning crews
• Traffic flow analyzers
• Charging station installers
• On-board experience designers

Blockchain in all its forms and derivations represents an exciting new industry that will overlay virtually every other industry. In many respects, this is virgin territory and we have yet to discover the true limits of blockchain.

• Blockchain regulators
• Blockchain engineers
• Blockchain designers
• Blockchain UI/UX experts
• Blockchain cloud managers
• Blockchain system analysts
• Blockchain product managers
• Blockchain business development gurus

Over the next two decades 3D printing will grow exponentially in speed, precision, and in the kinds of material that it can be used. This will open the doors to a wide variety of support personnel, as each machine becomes a major profit center.

• Digital house architects
• Contour crafters – 3D house builders
• Material scientists
• 3D product designers
• 3D printed pill pharmacies
• 3D printed organs, limbs, and prosthetics
• 3D printing specialists for reconstructive surgery
• 3D food printers

While the existing banking/finance industries will still employ a huge number of people, the traditional money world will be shrinking as automation causes most of the branch banking outlets to disappear. At the same time we will see over 50% of national currencies replaced by cryptocurrencies. Most of the growth in the financial sector will take place in professions surrounding cryptocurrency.

• Cryptocurrency regulators
• Cryptocurrency bankers
• Cryptocurrency transaction specialists
• Cryptocurrency wealth managers
• Cryptocurrency insurers
• Cryptocurrency miners
• Cryptocurrency exchange operators
• Cryptocurrency analysts

By 2040 the data universe will be driven by over 100 trillion sensors. As the MEMs and sensor industry uncovers innovative ways to sense and monitor different aspects of the world around us, the number of workers needed to bridge the interface between data and our physical world will also grow exponentially.

• Sensor designers
• Sensor installers
• Sensor tailors and garment creators
• Sensor data modelers
• Sensor data transmission optimizers
• Sensor signal engineers
• Sensor architects
• Sensor troubleshooters

Space X is causing industry experts to rethink time tables for the entire space industry. By 2040, we will have already begun to colonize Mars and space tourism rocket launches will be a daily occurrence. Similar to the airline industry, every launch will require a large cast of people employed in hundreds of different roles.

• Space mission planners
• Space launch management
• Space launch prep, cargo prep, meteorologists
• Space command traffic analyzers
• Space command guidance monitors
• Space experience designers
• Space impact minimizers
• Space ethics experts

Asteroids are filled with all the ingredients necessary to construct things in space as well as material that can be taken back to earth. These include gold, iridium, silver, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium and tungsten for transport back to Earth; and iron, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, aluminum, and titanium for construction. As launch costs continue to drop, activity in this space will grow quickly.

• Asteroid scouts and surveyors
• Asteroid mining ground crews
• Asteroid mining launch specialists
• Asteroid mining bot operators
• Asteroid material scientists
• Asteroid transport operators
• Asteroid-based smelting operators
• Asteroid analytics data managers

With the first fusion power plant coming online in 2040, the global power industry will be making plans to build literally thousands of new fusion power plants to replace our aging power infrastructure. Even though it will still be a fledgling industry, the hiring and prep work will have already begun.

• Fusion plant designers
• Fusion engineers
• Fusion system integrators
• Fusion micro grid experts
• Fusion plant contractors
• Fusion plant architects
• Fusion in space planners
• Fusion project manager

By 2040 we will be able to program our way to better health and genetically cure most diseases. Most will be wearing a huge range of sensors offering real-time monitoring. Longevity will rise, with many living well beyond 100. Children born in 2040 will essentially have a blank slate when it comes to life expectancy. With gene therapy, stem cell and nano-scale medicine, barring an accident or fatal disease, we cease to worry about dying, and look much younger as we age.

• Algorithmic health providers
• Algorithmic health researchers
• Algorithmic dietitians
• CRISPR biotechnicians
• CRISPR engineers
• CRISPR auditors
• Biomanufacturing experts
• Biomanufacturing organ designers

By 2040 we will have begun building a global tube transportation network, which will commonly be referred to as the world’s largest infrastructure project. Tube transportation will employ countless millions of people in both the construction and operation of the global tube system.

• Tube network designers
• Tube network builders
• Tube network command center
• Tube network safety engineers
• Tube network operators
• Tube network traffic optimizers
• Tube network maintenance and repair
• Tube network janitors

By 2040 we will have made the transition from bits and bytes to qubits. Qubits are the standard units used to measure quantum information. With quantum computing, all traditional encryption systems become hackable, and all users will have been forced to upgrade to quantum level encryption long before 2040.

• Quantum computing programmers
• Quantum data analyzers
• Quantum level privacy monitors & managers
• Quantum level trust managers
• Quantum equipment operators
• Quantum health monitors
• Quantum level medicine pharmacists
• Quantum computing personality designers

Few of us realize this, but we’ve been taught to think two-dimensionally. Starting with 2D paper, books, whiteboards and blackboards, our schools have beaten us over the head with 2D thinking. As we moved into the computer age, we moved to 2D screens. If we throw away the display on our computer and project everything three-dimensionally above our desks, we can’t even imagine what it’ll look like to “surf the net,” produce a 3D website, or if we created 3D charts and graphs, what that third dimension will represent. We all live in a three-dimensional world, but we’re only now getting to the point of experiencing it the way it already exists.

• Mixed reality travel agents
• Mixed reality therapists
• Mixed reality trainers
• Mixed reality coaches
• Mixed reality game designers
• Mixed reality movie producers
• Mixed reality experience builders, designers, and creators
• Mixed reality news producers

Even though it’s still not commercially available, within two years it will be cheaper than ranch grown meats, and that’s where things get very interesting because a number of industrial pivots will kick in, opening the doors to a vast new set of industries.

• Cultured meat bioreactor designers
• Cultured meat stem cell managers
• Cultured meat designers
• Cultured meat ethicists
• Cultured meat quality control
• Cultured meat new product development
• Cultured meat dietary engineers
• Cultured meat process managers

By 2040 home automation will be used to protect people, their health and belongings as much as it is to enhance their lives.

• IoT elocutionists
• IoT smart building installers
• IoT smart clothing developers
• IoT health monitors
• IoT system anthropologists
• IoT proximity alert systems
• IoT data actuaries
• IoT failure point assessors

 In 2040 we will be living in a world that will require higher caliber people to make it work, and it’s rather preposterous to think our existing systems can suddenly start producing better results. AI-enhanced teacherbots are coming and the ones who benefit the most will be the ones who start making an early transition.

• AI-enhanced teacherbot interface designers
• AI-enhanced teacherbot courseware creators
• AI-enhanced teacherbot engineers
• AI-enhanced teacherbot maintenance and repair
• AI-enhanced learning coaches
• Personal AI-enhanced skill builders
• Personal AI-enhanced life monitors
• Learning optimizers