Social and emotional skills like leadership, service orientation, social influence, managing others, kindness, compassion, empathy, and emotional intelligence will also rise to the top. A recent The Wall Street Journal article, "Wanted: Employees Who Can Shake Hands, Make Small Talk," captures the nuanced importance of social and emotional skills beautifully in the title itself. With technology leading to a gradual reduction of repetitive tasks, rule-based operations and processes, and administrative reportage, humans will perhaps have more time for innovation, collaboration, and productivity. For once, John Maynard Keynes' argument in Essays in Persuasion about mankind ending up with 15-hour work-week owing to people getting more productive, thanks to machines, technology and new ideas, may come true.

Technology as hardware has historically assisted humans by being outside of us. Technology getting embedded into a man may give rise to a new workforce of cyborgs and newer work standards. Threats and challenges to the established concepts of capitalism, globalisation, and the rise of sharing economy and platform businesses will be some of the other factors affecting and determining the future of work. Even as one could interpret in all this as Schumpeters 'creative destruction' working in disguise, especially with regard to the future of work, it is far more complex than meets the eye. As an example, will the emerging future of work deliver on its promise of diversity and inclusion?

The future of work will be determined by the changing nature of workthe processes, environments, contexts, and relationships for work. Add to this a few developmentscloud collaborative tech, IoT and big data; social media-influenced new behaviors; mobility defined by anytime, anywhere working; and globalisation as defined by no boundaries. And top it with pandemic-attack driven compulsions! If the future of work is wide and epoch-making, so are the attributes of tech-driven labour marketsindefinite, erratic, and extreme.

Moreover, if work becomes different, so will the act of learning. Technological angst is integral to the evolution of human civilisation. The success of Learning how to learn as one of the top 20 most sought-out courses out of 3900+ courses on Coursera perhaps drives home the point.

Individuals, companies, institutions, and governments will all have to play their part as the existing models will not be tenable. Exercising the power of options will help make longevity a gift which will require concerted action by all.

More twists and turns. More fluid than fixed. More sprints than a marathon. That will be the future of work.

Views are personal. The author is Executive-in-Residence at UCLA, a Stanford Seed Consultant, a global CEO coach, and a C-Suite + Start-up advisor.

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How will the future of work evolve? - Fortune India