WHAT skills will be needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century? Last month I spoke about this at a conference in London, at the end of which I booked an Uber to take me to the airport. With the Extinction Rebellion protest in full swing outside my hotel room window, causing a huge amount of traffic chaos, Uber informed me via the app that they would be adding a 50% surcharge to my fare. Faced with the alternative of hauling my luggage to the tube, I had little choice but to agree to pay it.

Uber is one of the giant technology companies that have embraced the use of big data, technology and artificial intelligence to grow and create value for its stakeholders and customers. The company uses dynamic pricing whereby computer algorithms, using big data and running on high performance computers, automatically impose surcharges on rides from areas with high customer demand. This way, the company can encourage more drivers to fulfil the demand and make more money in the process. This can have unfortunate effects; in both the Sydney terrorist attack in 2014 and the London terrorist attack in 2017, Uber started charging very high fees for rides from downtown Sydney and London, respectively. The algorithms were doing exactly what they were designed to do, obeying the supply and demand rule. In both of those cases, faced with a backlash from its customer base and the community at large, Uber was obliged to apologise.