Futurist Gerd Leonhard predicts technology advancements will result in mass job losses. Workers in repetitive jobs are most at risk of being replaced by robots in the near future, a futurist predicts. Swiss futurist Gerd Leonhard helps organisations, governments and people reinvent models for scenarios likely to play out in the near future. The former Silicon Valley businessman was flown to New Zealand this week by Spark to help the telco with its future business models.