SINGAPORE (Aug 6): Imagine hosting an international business conference from a deck chair on a beach, through a laptop and virtual reality device. Midway through your presentation, a robot brings you a cocktail. It does not matter that you are in surf shorts — the audience, also plugged into VR devices, only sees an augmented reality (AR) image of you on a stage. Not too far-fetched? That is because all that technology is already available.

Working remotely, and freelance on so-called “gigs”, has been enhanced by the proliferation of tech such as VR, AR, artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and big data analytics. Businesses in Singapore have been repeatedly exhorted to embrace new technologies as a key competitive advantage.

Yet, the same tech and trend have people worried about job security, with the possibility that a large number of workers across various sectors will become obsolete. The threat is real, but perhaps not so straightforward.

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