2018 was the year that saw Australia break out of its hesitation and slowly change its concerned attitudes towards new technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) was adopted in numerous ways, from the protection of our native flora and fauna to the observation of Australia's ageing bridges, which used AI and high-tech sensors to update engineers in real time on a bridge's coping load.

As Australia continues to embrace AI and Machine learning (ML), it raises several questions: Where will AI take us in 2019? Are robots going to steal our jobs? When will this happen? What does this mean for the future of jobs in Australia?

Here's what we will see happen in the job market with Australia's most disruptive technologies:

Shift from AI / ML research into AI/ML adoption

Organisations big and small will progress from researching AI and ML to purchasing and implementing those technologies. This implementation will see a shift as “early adoption” gives way to “table stakes” for companies rushing to be the market leader as venture capital investment in the industry tops $3 billion annually. With Australia's growing investment in AI, more opportunities will be made available in organisations looking for AI technicians.

Open source Systems

As AI / ML continues to grow, as will the AI and ML-powered tools that are required to maintain the industry, ultimately supporting the growth of AI in the background. 2019 will see an increase in Open source Systems (OSS) and communities that aim to support this growth, opening the doors to affordable, accessible means of processing large data sets, usually via the cloud. As a result, there will be a greater need for data-savviness and security, highlighting a gap in skilled technicians.

Increased interaction

As smart technology takes on the role of complex and copious amounts of data-heavy tasks, 2019 will see human practitioners focus on higher-order work. This will lead to the development of new skills in humans in order to ensure effective AI/ML.

From this, we can expect to see more substantial and tangible results across an ever-expanding set of scenarios. This can include such things as spot-on sales forecasting, accurate weather predictions and even precise anomaly detection.

AI/ML will drive business growth

Moving into 2019, ML will look to disrupt the ways of working business operations such as application planning, development and testing, ultimately helping to secure ML as the “norm” for all IT professionals. This will provide businesses with faster and higher quality results when it comes to the delivery of products and services, digital customer interactions and incident detection, to name a few. With business growth comes a large workforce, we will see national organisations grow into global corporations especially as Internet of Things (IoT) will start to dominate businesses, helping to create competitive advantages in the market.

We can expect to see changes in the job market as AI adoption accelerates. In fact, despite AI replacing 1.8 million jobs, Gartner reveals that technology will create 2.3 million jobs by 2020, highlighting the importance of new industries that will be created through AI's introduction.

One thing we are certain of is that the financial services and healthcare industries will be impacted most. With a goldmine of data in both sectors, we can see the implementation of AI happen far quicker than other industries. Overall Australia will seize opportunities involved with AI and ML that will only take us forward.