Future Skills

CHAPTER 11WORKING IN GIGS

In their book The Human Cloud, Matthew Mottola and Matthew Coatney describe a new way of work in which AI and the freelance economy combine to transform the world of work. They argue that traditional full-time employment will be a thing of the past, as organizations shift to hiring people on a contract basis, with those contractors mostly working remotely.

I tend to agree with their vision, which is why I'd advise everyone to prepare for a future in which more people work as “free agents” rather than traditional employees. And even if you happen to remain in traditional employment, the freelancer's ability to be flexible and take responsibility for their own professional development is something we can all learn from. Indeed, the need for everyone to take charge of their own skills is one of the main factors that drove me to write this book in the first place (and is probably why you picked it up). In other words, if you think the “gig economy,” as it's so often called, doesn't apply to you, think again. This trend is relevant to us all.

But before we get into the details, we can't ignore the fact that the gig economy has something of a bad rep. The phrase conjures up images of people working subminimum-wage jobs with next to no job security, while huge, exploitative platform businesses profit from their labor. While that sort of work is arguably what catapulted the gig economy into the mainstream, the gig economy spans all kinds of independent, freelance, ...