South Korea is the gold standard of automation; there is already one robot for every 10 employees there. In Russia, the coverage is 100 times lower, but it will still be impossible to keep the country within the previous technological paradigm.
The expansion of robots in our country will become a stress test for the labor market and the technological sovereignty of the nation. If there is not a sufficient number of domestic professionals to design, implement, calibrate, repair, and integrate them into efficient technological systems, such individuals will be found abroad. The country would then have to pay foreigners something akin to royalties for an automation franchise. Robots will render individuals performing routine manual labor unemployed, while intellectual specialists from places like South Korea will service the uncrewed production facilities.
Engineering education faces the challenge of graduating individuals who have already crossed the threshold of routine tasks, rather than merely preparing entry-level specialists. Neither the bachelor's nor even the specialist's degree is suitable for this anymore—the second quarter of the 21st century demands a 6-year training cycle (as seen in the educational model of Saint Petersburg Mining University), and potentially an even longer one in the future.
"Ease is achieved through hard work"—these words of the painter Ivan Aivazovsky can also be applied to a good engineer. The step from routine tasks to fully fledged technical creativity is impossible without a powerful, fundamental knowledge base and its deep practical consolidation. It is no secret that the current level of high school preparation in mathematics, physics, and chemistry does not meet the demands of technical higher educational institutions. This means that universities will have to fill in the gaps so that by their third year, for example, students possess a coherent picture of the world in their minds and can transition to mastering specialized disciplines. Over 95% of the vacancies posted by employers on recruiting websites require prior industrial experience. Consequently, students need to acquire this experience during their studies—in a phased, systematic manner, and in a much larger volume than is currently accepted in the overwhelming majority of universities. Furthermore, an engineer requires a broad range of additional competencies, including mastery of vocational specializations, soft skills, and a foundation in the humanities. It is obvious that it is simply impossible to fit all of this into a four-year educational cycle. Such an education in the 21st century can no longer be called higher education.
In engineering, the wholesale displacement of specialists who handle lower- and middle-tier tasks is still ahead, whereas among economists, lawyers, and even programmers, it is already in full swing.
Let us summarize the expert assessments of the functional tasks within the aforementioned professions that can be almost completely automated today.
Finance, audit, and accounting: Data entry and document reconciliation, generation of journal entries, preparation of standard reporting and its preliminary analysis, and the monitoring of decision compliance with the regulatory framework are all being automated.
Jurisprudence (Law): Computer systems are taking over the preparation of contractual documentation based on template forms, the search for standard legal risks in the incoming flow of documents, and the comparison of versions of legal deal execution.
IT sector: Artificial intelligence can successfully handle testing, writing boilerplate code, and adapting existing software for similar tasks.
Engineering will absorb the next wave of automation. And here is what experts say regarding this matter: the risk of workforce displacement within a 5-to-7-year horizon exists in the areas of preliminary calculations and load modeling in design, the analysis of blueprints and digital models of facilities, the selection of materials for production and construction, the generation of cost estimates and specifications, supply chain management, regulatory compliance verification, and product quality control.
The specialist who will manage automated systems must possess a detailed understanding of their operation at every single stage. In addition to this, the engineer will retain "manual control" in non-standard and critical situations, overall command over the process, and, of course, innovation. You cannot learn this quickly.