What Industry Will Be Most Disrupted By Technology In The Next Decade?

What industry will be most disrupted by technology in the next decade?

I think the easy answer is the right one on this: transportation.

Self-driving cars are gonna seriously shake things up. For one, it’s gonna put a buttload of people out of work. I mean, there are a LOT of drivers in the USA: Truckers, Taxis, Bus drivers, School bus drivers, and more. The American Trucking Association estimated there were 3 million truck drivers in the USA in 2010. That’s 1% of the total US population. And that’s just for trucks. At the same time, it has the potential to lower costs for goods (unless companies just decide to keep those savings, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t last long in our arms-race driven online-market.)

But it’s not only that it’ll put a lot of people out of work (there’s a lot of tech poised to do that), it’ll re-shape entire industries and society itself. For one, the automotive industry is already suffering bc millenials aren’t buying cars like generations before had. Part of that is due to the ease of on-demand services, like Uber or Lyft. Once cars are self-driving, they’re only gonna get cheaper, safer, faster, and without the sometimes off-putting drivers. In other words, it’ll accelerate that trend. We may see a drastic fall in car ownership altogether, and with it, entire industries are gonna struggle to survive. But transportation costs for the average person will be a lot more effective.

If we consider the shift toward sustainable transportation, electric cars are also poised to make a huge change, putting a big dent in Big Oil’s business. And simultaneously helping to spur growth for sustainable technology. (e.g. Look at Tesla’s recent bid to buy SolarCity.)

In terms of safety, self-driving cars will be much better, and so the amount of traffic collisions and deaths will plummet. That will also effect the amount of money and time spent treating those injured, repairing environments, and paying outrageous insurance claims (and yes, the auto-insurance business is going to have to evolve dramatically). It may even allow for highways where self-driven cars can speed up to 120 mph without worry. Or even busy intersections without lights (or seeming order), where cars rush past others in all directions.

There are a lot of other industries on the cusp of making great changes (e.g. VR/AR, Quantum Computing, genetic modification), but in terms of real big effects we’ll see in the next decade, self-driving cars are ready to hit the road and shake things up bc of industry pressures for cost-savings and safety, and due to trends in millenial driving habits. And, to my mind, that change will really signify the next generation of change coming by mixing our digital and irl worlds.

Thanks for the ask =]