I’ve been reading quite a lot recently about the predicted demise of a lot of white-collar professional jobs – including, most alarmingly, accountants (I used to be one of those!).

The theory goes that what were previously seen as professions requiring a high degree of training and expertise will increasingly become capable of being programmed into a computer and carried out just, if not more, efficiently. At the very least less professionals will be required to edit and finalise the “raw output” that computers will be able to provide – although even these tasks may be redundant as computers start talking to us in human-ways.

And we’re not only talking about accountants being vulnerable here. If you are a lawyer, surveyor, banker, technical writer of some sort or in any other similar profession then you may be vulnerable to being replaced by future generations of super-computers.

But before all the professionals in your building start jostling for position on the window ledge of the 10th floor, let’s see if we can get any comfort from history that will at least make most hesitate before they jump.

We have, after all, seen this type of development cycle from the industrial revolution onwards.

Undoubtedly although some professionals will fall by the wayside as they are replaced by the relatives of Brian the Robot from confused.com, many others will adapt to the new requirements. It’s the business equivalent of “the law of natural selection” and it happens to every generation.

There will always be a place for excellence in every traditional profession, however it develops in the future. Strategic planning, management consultancy, implementation techniques, business communication and general “people skills” are what the next generation of professionals will be doing as they apply the technical information and solutions provided to them by Brian the Robot.

Number-crunching accounts, producing near-standard legal documents or writing a technical manual will all become non-human activities – but if this means professionals using their higher-level skills to more directly benefit the business community, and more widely the UK and global economy, then this must be welcome news and not a threat.