From an Economist article that’s skeptical about the implementation a pilotless planes, which I strongly believe will ultimately become standard:

“Overall, cockpit automation has been a boon—at least for airlines. It saves fuel, helps with maintenance, reduces the number of crew needed on the flight deck and cuts their training time. To some extent, it also makes it easier for pilots to qualify on other aircraft types, though there are significant differences in control philosophies between Airbus and Boeing.

That aside, the over-arching problem with cockpit automation stems from the way it has been implemented—with flight crew relegated from their traditional role of physically flying the aircraft to becoming essentially systems supervisors. Unquestionably, this has taken its toll on their ‘stick-and-rudder’ skills. Instead of flying their planes, flight crew now spend most of their time in the air programming and monitoring various pieces of equipment (a typical airliner has around 90 automated systems on board), inputting data and checking that everything is working correctly.

Many of today’s younger pilots (especially in the rapidly expanding markets of Asia and the Middle East) have had little opportunity to hone their airmanship in air forces, general aviation or local flying clubs, allowing them to amass long hours of hand-flying various aircraft in all sorts of weather conditions and emergencies.” (Thanks Browser.)