AI Impacts on the Job Landscape
The assertion "AI is coming after your job" that follows every one of its feats is a statement that leaves many people distraught with fear.
Many are stuck. Torn between love and hate for the concept of technological progress, but unable to ignore the fact that this new technology could take away their jobs. This begs the question, what exactly are the goals of AI? Is AI a friend or a foe?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science of creating intelligent machines and computer programs that mirror human cognitive functions. The human cognitive capacity or general intellect includes the aptitude to think, learn from experiences, handle abstract concepts, and adjust to new information.
By using mathematics, computer science, psychology, and linguistics, artificial intelligence programs machines to replicate human intellectual process characteristics. Machines with intelligent wiring that mimics the human brain can carry out functions akin to humans, such as increasing knowledge from experience, making deductions, accepting new input, discovering meaning, and recognizing language. By looking for patterns in large amounts of data, they can model their own decisions.
How is AI Transforming the Job Landscape?
The workplace revolution has the most recent example of AI. AI programs are used in a range of applications, such as computer search engines and medical diagnosis, and have achieved the same level of expertise as human professionals in completing certain tasks.
AI works toward altering the nature of labour and carries out complicated jobs with higher efficiency and accuracy. For example, automated processes have been created to take over certain occupational roles that are data-heavy and repeated. This includes data entry, image recognition, customer service, insurance writing, and so on. According to the reports of the World Economic Forum on the Future of Jobs in 2020, AI is predicted to replace 85 million positions by 2025 of which AI automation already threatens jobs without specialized skills necessitating the cultivation of new ones.
Today, there seem to be more problems with the further invention of AI. With trending innovations such as ChatGPT, a language generation model and others, you can’t help but wonder if AI is going to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Because, soon inventors might be able to create systems that can surpass the capabilities of human minds, revolutionizing the job industries in several ways.
Another way AI is transforming the job landscape is through the number of job positions it curates while displacing others. A report from Accenture suggests that AI-influenced jobs can be divided into Trainers, Explainers and Sustainers. Because AI jobs will require training, a new field of human experts would be needed to not only manage the technology but also teach these skills. AI has equally accelerated the need of:
1. Machine Learning Engineers: It is the subset of AI that focuses on building systems that learn and improve performance based on the data they consume.
2. Data Analysts: Data analysts are in high demand for analyzing and gleaning insight from the vast amount of data AI systems will be generating. They harness the power of data to unlock the full potential of AI.
3. Developers: AI needs developers to create software and applications to revolutionise industries using the newest AI methods. This includes developing chatbots for customer service or implementing machine learning algorithms for predictive analytics. An AI developer can help businesses achieve their goals and stay ahead of the competition.
4. Cyber Security: AI systems are becoming more powerful and widespread increasing the demand for cyber security experts. The AI systems have to be protected from potential cyber-attacks and safeguard their integrity.
Others include robotic engineering, customer experience specialist, AI research scientist etc.
As much as AI is demanding the displacement of jobs and reskilling for new positions, many schools of thought insist that there is no need to be frantic with the development. Companies would most likely optimize AI in ways to enable the productivity and efficiency of the human workforce and not replace it as most AI applications will need some level of human direction. And all cognitive ability is laced with value judgements that are subject to only human experience.
However, it is expedient to upskill and reskill in a world of rapid technological change and you can do that by picking a variety of Edcent's AI courses to start. Ready to reskill?