Throughout history, technology has simplified tasks and redirected workers away from certain roles and towards others, reconfiguring the workforce.
While some industries shrink, others grow as the shake up creates new roles.
Digital marketers, drone pilots and app developers have all popped up in the past decade because of new technology, news.com.au reports.
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution promises the widespread use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI), new roles will continue to materialise.
REA Group data scientist manager Glenn Bunker heads a small team in the consumer side of the business which operates realestate.com.au and says data science has become particularly big in the past five years.
"I am seeing lots of people diverging into this field with lots of different backgrounds. The number one (thing workers need) is curiosity. Science is all about asking questions and solving problems and making decisions," he says.
"(In the future) there will be some areas where there are far less jobs but there are jobs being created at the same time, particularly in this space. There is such an explosion of data so there is a lot more to work through to make decisions."
Claudia Kolbe's role as project co-ordinator of Randstad's predictive analytics project was created just this year.
It became necessary when the recruitment agency's business concepts team decided to quantify its customer relationships.
"We created an algorithm that looks at the relationship we have with clients based on two years of Randstad data," she says.
"It's the process of trying to quantify a relationship and outline what works well and highlight if there are areas to focus on."
Kolbe, who is preparing to graduate from a Bachelor of Economics with a second major in finance, says the growing demand for data science is also increasing the need for related roles such as hers.
"There is data science then there's the communication of that information," she says.
"It's not just crunching numbers behind the scenes but connecting with everyone and making sure you can integrate this into the business."
Randstad Australia head of business concept development Helena Turpin believes new technologies will change a lot of roles but not as quickly as some predict.
"Roles ripe for automation are anything repetitive or structured but there are very few jobs that are totally structured," she says.
"I don't manage projects in the same way as a couple of years ago because of the technology I have available (but) I can't consciously say I woke up one day and my job had changed. It's an evolutionary process. A lot of us will have time to adapt."
Turpin, whose team is currently exploring the use of chat bots, works with many people whose roles have been created by new technology.
Dr Seamus McGuinness, research professor at The Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin, says technology can also indirectly increase employment.
"Improved technology tends to eliminate more routine tasks and, in doing so, raises both productivity and wages thus creating the demand for additional services and jobs as incomes and wealth rise," he says.
FIVE JOBS CREATED BY TECHNOLOGY
1. Social media manager
There was no need for these professionals until social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram became mainstream.
A social media manager creates and maintains a company's social media presences, monitors interactions using web analytic tools, and answers inquiries from followers.
2. Digital marketer
This role involves tasks such as creating marketing campaigns through social media, and using search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase visitor traffic to the company's website.
It relies on traditional marketing theories but is applied to the tech sphere.
3. Wind energy engineer
Alternative energy sources are growing rapidly and creating new jobs in areas such as solar, geothermal and wind power. Workers are employed as wind energy engineers, renewable solutions designers and atmospheric scientists.
4. Drone pilot
Since drones hit the mainstream, jobs have been created for pilots offering services from property and wedding photography to asset management to pizza delivery.
Jobs have also been created in sales, repairs and insurance.
5. App developer
A decade ago, we didn't have smartphones. Now, almost three million applications are available on Android app store Google Play. Each of these was built by a developer.