In 1910, there were nearly 20 million horses in the US, per Data Paddock. This number dropped to under 1.6 million by 1974.
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Why? Because new technology – the automobile – has disrupted the transportation industry. Horses have become a luxury rather than a form of transportation, which is bad for breeders and farriers, but good for auto mechanics and manufacturers.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to succumb to it, which begs the question: What industries are on the brink of disruption and extinction today?
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1. Deliveries and taxi drivers
Of course, tech companies were testing self-driving cars 15 years ago and everyone jumped to say, “Human drivers will be obsolete by 2020!”
That didn’t happen, of course. But that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Self-driving cars continue to improve, and in either 10 or 20 years, it’s hard to imagine millions of Americans working as drivers once the safety record of self-driving cars surpasses their human counterparts.
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2. Travel agencies
Increasingly, travel agencies have become a luxury of the wealthy. Busy moguls simply dictate their criteria and let an agency work out the details.
Those bespoke tour operators won’t go away, but they won’t cater to middle-class vacationers either. There’s simply no demand for it in an age where you can get the best deal by going to Skyscanner or Airbnb.
3. Publishing of newspapers and magazines
Also, print newspapers and magazines will not disappear entirely, but will consolidate and become more niche.
The likes of “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post” will likely continue to print as an exercise in prestige and nostalgia—something to place outside the elegant doors of boutique hotel rooms as a “nice touch” for guests. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ll ever enjoy the circulation they claimed in the 20th century.
4. Power and coal mining
Few industries suffer from coal’s terrible press and reputation.
The US Career Institute ranks coal as the fifth fastest-declining industry, to no one’s surprise. There are too many cleaner energy alternatives, even among fossil fuels.
5. Data entry
In a world where almost every point is collected digitally and AI can collect or analyze it instantly, why should companies pay people to enter data manually?
Sure, there will be exceptions, but data entry marks another low-skill industry destined for disruption and the chopping block.
6. Low-end customer support
Sometimes customers will need to speak to a knowledgeable human being. But as AI interfaces become smarter and sound more human, they will increasingly take over the first level of interaction between people and businesses.
7. Cutting edge legal research
Artificial intelligence is also coming to white-collar workers in the legal profession.
As AIs become smarter and more reliable, they will be able to instantly crawl legal databases and learn case law, precedents, examples and other legal research. Research that a charismatic human lawyer can use to support his case – without having to pay a small army of paralegals and researchers.
8. Independent writing
Unfortunately, my neck also rests on the chopping block.
As a 20+ year veteran of the real estate and financial industry, publishers can still ask me for endorsement quotes 10 years from now. But only the most niche publishers in the industry will actually pay me to write for them.
AI can synthesize data well, and its writing will continue to improve. But no amount of data can replace first-hand experience, and it’s a waste when most of the “new” content will come from recombining old content rather than teaching from lived experiences.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 8 Industries That Could Be Gone in 10 Years
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