These Are Emerging Industries in 2020, According to LinkedIn

As 2020 kicks off, there are emerging business trends that are especially important to keep an eye on based on research. LinkedIn, the social networking platform that connects millions of people together, recently released a study examining exactly that: which emerging industries and jobs will be noteworthy in 2020.

“In this year’s report, artificial intelligence and data science roles continue to proliferate across nearly every industry. Robotics, an emerging sector of the $1.2 trillion artificial intelligence industry, has also made its first appearance in this report. Blockchain Developer didn’t return, which may not come as a surprise given the rapid decline in popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” according to Guy Berger, LinkedIn’s principal economist, at the start of the report.

Notably, he continues to discuss just how important artificial intelligence will be across industries in his message to readers. “At this stage, most of the workforce doesn’t work in the emerging field of artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it won’t impact everyone,” he writes. “Artificial intelligence will require the entire workforce to learn new skills, whether it’s to keep up to date with an existing role, or pursuing a new career as a result of automation.”

Unsurprisingly, Berger’s comments align with the top trends for industries in the report. “Data and artificial intelligence continue to make a strong showing in our Emerging Jobs Report, but roles across sales and health care also took spots.

The LinkedIn report breaks down the top 2020 industry trends into three separate buckets: The first trend? Data science is booming, according to LinkedIn. “Unsurprisingly, data science is a field that is seeing continued growth on a tremendous scale, but our data shows data scientists may be augmenting responsibilities traditionally done by statisticians as some industries, like insurance, gear up for the future.” The second trend is that the tech industry’s future will be closely aligned to people skills. “A few roles represented in this report – product owner, customer success specialist, and sales development representative – are in high demand within the tech industry. The future of things like Software as a Service (SaaS), a $278 billion dollar industry, will rely on people skills (which can’t be automated) successfully complementing new technologies,” as noted by LinkedIn. Finally, the company predicts that smart cars are coming and will be a booming industry. “The automotive industry is hiring for AI talent in the form of robotics engineers, data scientists, and artificial intelligence specialists,” according to the report. “In the race to build the first self-driving car, investment in this type of talent is a clear indicator that smart transportation is part of the next wave of AI innovation.”

In conclusion, LinkedIn’s report on emerging trends for 2020 illustrates that data is booming, tech will need people skills to continue to thrive as an industry and that smart cars are the future of automation.