Like the story of the steam drill against John Henry, the machine will be victorious because it doesn’t get tired and keeps on going long after a human worker will have dropped dead from exhaustion. The modern-day steam drill is likely to be an AI system, and John Henry is played by the planner, doctor, analyst, stockbroker or accountant who believes that they can process more data and crunch more numbers than the new machine overlords. They can’t.

By the end of the decade many of these technologies will have crossed the chasm and become disruptive, creating a world in which people, insights, and money interact quickly, easily and cheaply, affecting nearly every industry at every level. This will have both positive and negatives, for each new wave brings a period of technological Darwinism, as creation never travels alone; its companion, destruction, always hitches a ride.

Most people blindly assume that machines will only be used as our slaves, when they are just as likely to be used in our enslavement. Individual freedoms, liberty and equality are a relatively new state of affairs for most nations, and as a species we have considerably more experience in treating people as commodities than as free agents.

The near future is going to be defined by the outcomes of a battle between those in control of the machines, and those controlled by them. Corporations have become richer and more powerful than countries, but without any form of societal contract or responsibility to citizens or communities. They are not the Quakers of old. Their loyalty to you starts and ends with your worth as a consumer and as a data provider.

The future is less about management and the ability to recall information or taught skills, and more about the ability to use critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and adaptability.