By 2050, the world will be very different than it is today.
A series of emerging technologies – artificial intelligence, renewable energy, genetics, and space travel – will unleash changes in the way we live and in our society.
If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, it’s critical that you get in front of these trends and prepare for the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow by gaining the skills needed to serve the new economy.
The most future-proof careers will ride the waves of both technological and scientific breakthroughs slated to define the coming decades.
Of course, no one can say for sure how the world will look in 30+ years from now. Yet, based on analytics (that is, on current trends), such forecasts paint possible scenarios on what could be possible on a much wider scale.
Let’s start!
Augmented Reality Architects
Income potential: $150K+
Augmented reality (AR) can overlay more digital information on top of people’s real-world views using special headsets or apps on smartphones. By 2050, AR will be used on construction sites to enable people to view computer-aided design images like a building before starting on the actual site.
Instead of outdated 2D plans, you’ll create interactive 3D AR models for clients to explore and tweak, allowing for a boundlessly collaborative design process, replaced guesswork, and immersive virtual walkthroughs of buildings or spaces.
AI Program Developers
Income potential: $250K+
Think of 2050, and you’ll get a picture of how widespread artificial intelligence will be across multiple industries. All businesses will use AI systems heavily for automation, analytics, tagging, recommendation, and the management of customer interaction and social media. By then, there will be incredibly high demand for AI developers to create tomorrow’s intelligent applications.
You will build tailored solutions on machine learning, natural language processing, robotics and data science for clients. Maintaining knowledge of the newest AI capabilities will be important to offer high-end services. High technical skills in languages such as Python and frameworks including TensorFlow will be vital.
Genetic Engineering Consultants
Income potential: $200K+
By 2050, as genetic modifications become part of everyday life, using CRISPR to edit the genome will become commonplace. When scientific imagination becomes accessible, people will go to a genetic consultant to get genes they like in order to avoid disease or ‘upgrade’ their own biology using gene therapies designed for them.
As a genetics consultant, you’ll diagnose client needs and risks in order to develop scientifically sound recommendations for responsible genetic engineering, directing those individuals to the services they need in order to enhance wellness, fitness and longevity through gene editing and therapies.
Professionals working in this area will need to have a thorough understanding of genomics, biochemistry, bioethics and gene-editing techniques that employ the CRISPR process. They must also be good writers and communicators when advising clients on personalized genetic treatments that would have been confidential in the past.
Vertical Farmers
Income potential: $75K+
For example, by 2050 there will likely be a need for workers in enhanced vertical farming technologies – growing crops in stacked, indoor environments to help alleviate food shortages in our increasingly urban societies.
As a commercial vertical farmer, you’ll use hydroponics, aeroponics, LED lighting and data analytics to help maximise the yield and health of your produce throughout the year. You’ll also bring much of our food production closer to the cities where we live, significantly reducing our need to ship it long distances.
You’ll need to pay close attention to nutrients, humidity and lighting in order to nourish your crops from cradle to death in high-rise buildings. A science background could be helpful, but vertical farm operators rely mostly on training in controlled environment agriculture technologies.
Drone Repair Technicians
Income potential: $60K+
By 2050, deliveries, photography, inspection, and vice-like surveillance will all be taken up by drones. Drones will need expert drone repair technicians.
As a drone repair technician, you will troubleshoot, swap out failed parts and conduct software patches to get damaged drones back in the air. Strong analytical and technical skills are needed to troubleshoot and service composite drone equipment/subsystems.
It’s a job for you if you like meticulous work and appreciate learning the complexities of contemporary aviation technology. As drones become more ubiquitous, repair experts with the right qualifications will be in demand.
Body Enhancement Technicians
Income potential: $150K+
They might, if they are good ones, lead you to move faster, attack stronger, perceive more efficiently. Thanks to innovations in technologies such as neural implants, synthetic organelles and genetic modifications, we might have in the year 2050 ‘set’. Physical traits can be enhanced.
In this job, you will provide consultancy to clients and perform body enhancement techniques with low chances of adverse events, such as implanting bionic limbs or enhancing muscles with genome editing and nanobots to enhance the functions of the body. You will need a knowledge of biomechanical engineering, surgical knowledge and nano-medicine.
Autonomous Vehicle Mechanics
Income potential: $75K+
Amazon is already ramping up for widespread use of completely self-driving cars by 2050. These automated approaches will mean that a job for a technician working on the sensors, software and electronics for such powerful autonomous vehicles will be well established in 2050.
As a self-driving vehicle (AV) mechanic, you will diagnose problems with AV components, install over-the-air software patches, and perform hardware repairs to AV fleets so they can continue to operate safely. You will work with AV coders on a regular basis to optimise performance.
It will require technical competence, relentless learning, and a steady approach. You will be a pillar of the future ground transportation architecture.
VR Environment Designers
Income potential: $120K+
Virtual reality technology will mature by 2050: there will be a huge demand for VR designers able to create 3D synthetic environments for use in computer games, workplace collaboration, architecture, psychotherapy, tourism, etc.
As a VR environment designer, you’ll be designing complex virtual environments through 3D modelling techniques and VR-specific game development toolkits. Use your creative talents to solve technical challenges, immersing users in simulated spaces that stimulate their senses.
Combine your design know-how with a desire to build the communications layer of the metaverse. That is the next generation of social media, as a way for people to interact and be expressive.
Crypto Managers
Income potential: $350K+
By 2050, a portion of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin will finally become mainstream assets, as banks and financial markets embrace them. There will be an increasing need for crypto asset managers who comprehend the contracts.
You’ll inform individuals and institutions if they’re on the right path as they manage their digital-currency investments and blockchain platforms. Watch crypto markets around the clock, track trends, fine-tune portfolios and realize maximum gain from investments in unstable crypto.
3D Printed Construction Engineers
Income potential: $140K+
Thanks to 3D printing, construction will no longer require extensive advance fabrication. With the ability to quickly create structures on site using minimal raw materials and labor, engineers mastering large-scale 3D printing operations will become a critical component to these new site-specific building efforts.
You will work on-site as a 3D construction engineer, operating giant 3D printers that layer-by-layer print concrete, composites, polymers and metals to architectural designs, understanding the structural design, 3D printing and construction materials involved and ways to optimize builds.
Finally, 3D-printing bureaus will become your next site of construction, where you will use that technology to erect the structures faster, cheaper, and with less environmental impact than before.
Cyber City Planners
Income potential: $120K+
By 2050, the metaverse will become a popular place for living, working and socialising online. This suggests the creation of a job for urban planners who will construct the digital environments of the metaverse.
As a cyber-city planner, you will create the structure and layout for vast virtual areas where digital citizens can run their businesses, take part in events, and participate in governance through creative systems design, informed by a deep understanding of the significance of structure for large groups of people.
Renewable Energy Engineers
Income potential: $100K+
Renewable energy – meaning energy generated via wind, solar and hydrogen – should be able to meet the majority of our global electricity needs by 2050, if climate targets are to be met. So how many engineers will need to become experts in green energy systems by 2050?
As a renewables engineer you’ll design, build and maintain solar farms, offshore wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, geothermal plants and more; you will help to develop large-scale storage solutions for energy, such as grid batteries to provide cities with secure and clean power.
Since climate change increases, ‘green’ power infrastructure will need to be scaled up and optimized and engineers who can do this will be invaluable. Bring your engineering skills and environmental passion to this essential field.
Gene Therapy Specialists
Income potential: $200K+
By 2050, there will be gene therapies in humans that can delete, insert or edit human DNA to cure hitherto incurable diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancers, HIV and hemophilia, among thousands of others. The need for gene therapy technicians and clinicians will be huge.
As a specialist in gene therapy, you will correct a patient’s DNA sequence by eliminating or sabotaging disease-causing mutations, or you could add copies of protective genes.
You’ll lead developments in regenerative medicine to treat damaged organs affected by disease and injury using CRISPR, tools that have the potential to spur a healthcare revolution offering personalized genetic solutions to vast numbers of patients who suffer from illness.
Once you have mastered molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry and virology, with a little medical knowledge thrown in, and have worked one-on-one with medical doctors to help them bring about the brave new world of genetic engineering, you can move on to edit the genes of human beings safely and accurately.
Personal Data Brokers
Income potential: $150K+
By then, large corporations will have aggregated far more information on individuals, analysed it and sold it on. We will need to work with data brokers to make money out of our own information.
As a broker of personal data, you’ll arrange transactions between clients wanting to sell access to their data – such as biometrics, social media analytics, purchase history, browsing history, etc. – and buyers.
You’ll negotiate the best possible terms for the individual or their ‘agency’ while simultaneously helping them fully consent and being completely transparent about how their data is monetized.
Exercise Biohackers
Income potential: $80K+
In 2050, for example, technologies including brain stimulation implants, biometric trackers and smart drugs will make it possible for humans to engage in an enormous amount of ‘biohacking’ in an effort to increase exercise performance.
Already, there are fitness experts who hold ‘biohacker’ certificates that enable them to guide clients to safely hack their bodies in order to increase their fitness.
Acting as an exercise biohacker, you will use neurostimulation, VR training regimes and AI performance analytics to give your clients an edge in terms of strength and speed. Isolated heads and bodies of athletes and transhumanists desperate for greater athletic abilities will benefit from your expertise in up-to-date biohacking technology.
Digital Designers
Income potential: $90K+
Digital tools such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain will transform the creative industries like art, garment and product design by 2050. In the future, we’ll face the need for digital designers able to utilize these novel technologies.
As a digital designer, you’ll bring together technical know-how and creative flair to create new forms of expression. You might design fashion collections for the metaverse, or use generative AI to automatically generate unique video textures and art for video games.
You will constantly expand the edges of intuition and innovation at the place where technology and ingenuity intersect. Your paintbrush and canvas will consist of code, algorithms and new mediums such as virtual reality.
Brain-Computer Interface Developers
Income potential: $220K+
Within a couple of decades, by 2050, BCI devices enabling minds to interact directly with computers through thought will be commonly used consumer tech and there will be a huge demand for skilled BCI developers.
As a BCI developer, you will develop engineering teams inventing non-intrusive devices allowing users to telepathically control any computer using decrypted brain waves. The first applications will be to allow hands-free computer-operation (typing and gaming), silent social networking and mining data at a faster rate, also by reading minds.
It’s going to take a familiarity with the nuances and technicalities of neuroscience, nanotechnology, biomedical engineering and software development in order to address important challenges, such as wirelessly transferring brain data using reliable long-term interfaces.
Nano-Medics
Income potential: $350K+
With the completion of this visionary technology, we might expect an innovative form of highly knowledge- and labour-intensive service work, performing complex robotic medical treatments at the scale of individual cells inside patients, brought in response to nanomedical demand by microbot or nanobot’s crews into the form of micro-medic nano-firms by 2050.
As a nano-medic, you will have at your disposal a variety of different nanobots that can be injected into the patient. These include the drugging nanobots used for dose regimens, the cell-repair nanites that identify and treat failing or dead cells, and the sophisticated steerable microbots that literally pinpoint treatment using precision therapy.
You will need a lot of experience in disciplines such as robotics engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology and surgery to direct therapeutic nanobots around the body with speed and precision. Apply your expertise to help doctors take medicine into the millimeter scale using these tiny tools.
Cybersecurity Defenders
Income potential: $150K+
By 2050, almost everything will be connected via the ‘Internet of Things’ in an explosion of vulnerabilities to hacking, ransomware – or cyber-terrorism. The number of jobs in cybersecurity will fall far short of the need.
As a cybersecurity defender, you’ll build defence layers for complex networks against assaults on autonomous technologies, biometric databases, cryptocurrencies, critical infrastructure and more – using AI behavioural analytics to forecast threats and rapidly identify and quarantine them as they arise across distributed networks.
If you learn to master the basics of cryptography, forensics, and deep-dive software knowledge, you will have a valuable skill to help companies defend themselves from a host of threats in the networked era.
Robot Companion Programmers
Income potential: $90K+
By 2050, robot companions that provide social contact, provide therapy, counselling and offer personalized assistance to users of the technology will be mainstream.
The skill of engaging, empathizing, and even falling in love with the robot will be in demand and supply will depend on the skills of tens of thousands of programmer staff trying to create robot personalities.
You will collaborate with manufacturers in order to produce robot friends that experience joys and sorrows just like a human companion in a way that may feel natural and organic, and help people fill an existential need to be appreciated.
Off-Planet Construction Crews
Income potential: $180K+
By 2050, when a few dozen human beings will live on Mars and orbiting stations over Earth, from construction workers who are willing to relocate to Mars and risk building space infrastructure.
To be an off-planet builder means you’ll construct our first true colonies, building in the zero gravity or low atmospheric pressure of a functioning colony with complex construction rules on Mars or extending our orbital stations. As a builder in space, you’ll work in dangerous high-radiation environments and live as a true pioneer amongst the first wave of human colonizers.
Training to the highest physical standards, using expert techniques, will be required to prepare for these difficult roles off-world (planetary-style), and to prevent deaths caused by accident, injury and or poor health.
You’ll need to be tough. Eventually, you will be sitting on everything you’ve achieved, and it will provide humanity’s crucial first steps into the solar system.
Digital Asset Managers
Income potential: $280K+
Next-generation blockchain/crypto-based web systems will dominate business and finance by 2050, making managers familiar with these emerging digital assets increasingly important.
You are a digital asset manager, and your customers will sap capital from carbon-free new streams such as cryptocurrency, NFT digital art, virtual real estate, AI intellectual property, augmented reality ad space and digital reputation tokens. You will advise them on how to best leverage these virtual capital flows.
With skilled insights into metaverse markets, blockchain governance, cryptofinance and AI training systems, among other emerging protocols, you can help assess and build the diverse forms of digital wealth. Your counsel, in turn, is sure to make you a coveted next-gen advisor.
Neuro-Marketing Experts
Income potential: $130K+
By 2050, predictive biometric and neuroscience data will help marketing and advertising to know consumers’ subconscious desires and motivations. An excellent grasp of neuromarketing is definitely in demand.
With your new job in neuromarketing, you’ll soon be able to give your client unprecedented insight into marketing strategies, by hooking people up to VR goggles, galvanic skin sensor, eye trackers and EEG monitors that measure emotional responses and buying triggers at a neurological level.
Your role will be to read biometric signals and brain activity information and adjust branding and advertising to make it more subtly effective; find the discrete incentivizes that will attract customers and encourage brand loyalty.
Commercial Drone Operators
Income potential: $90K+
Commercial services that drones will provide on a large scale by 2050: small-scale deliveries, photography, data collection, industrial/utilities inspections; demand for certified commercial drone operators is going to skyrocket.
As a professional drone pilot, you’ll pilot drones for paying clients to photograph property, deliver goods in urban areas, help police operations, monitor crop health, undertake site surveys, and much more.
To get there, you’ll need to invest in thousands of hours of training in flight regulations and procedures, drone flight systems, camera operation, data analytics and more.
Through learned proficiency in flying drones, you’ll help support a wide variety of critical industries.
Sustainability Technology Specialists
Income potential: $120K+
By 2050, sustainable business operations and products must all be certified under the broadest possible sustainability standards and regulation on carbon emissions, waste and ecosystem resilience. An army of expertise will be needed for critical coordination of how specific organizations adapt.
You’ll help to reduce waste by advising companies on installing reuse and recycling processes, to make their supply chains renewable, to reach carbon neutrality, and from a risk management perspective, you’ll build climate-resilient infrastructure. Become a sustainability technology specialist.
You’ll be a star when you have completed solutions in each of these areas as an engineer, supply chain specialist, greenhouse gas accountant, environmental policy expert, green building designer, and more. As a result of your expertise, a business would depend on your knowledge and judgments regarding the sustainable use of technology and resources for strategic and competitive purposes, as the world of business embraces new regulations and goals with respect to climate change. You’ll be invaluable for steering a business into the future and stabilizing the environment.
Final Thoughts
Those business ideas presented here represent a glimpse into the opportunities that will result from coming advances in technology during this century’s first half.
The real hot jobs in any field will be those whose expertise quickly adapts to new technologies. Are you ready?
