Walmart recently announced it plans to deploy robots to scan shelves, scrub floors, and perform other mundane tasks in its stores as the retail giant seeks to lower labor costs.

Although the retail giant did not say which jobs, if any, might be lost as a result, the announcement—and the many more surely to follow at other big box retailers—begs the question: How can workers prepare for a future of increasingly automated work?

Millions of today’s jobs are expected to be affected by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation as part of the fourth industrial revolution. But just which occupations are most at risk has been a guessing game among economists, futurists, and scholars trying to predict winners and losers.

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