The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution presents some colossal crossroads.
For workers, will AI take their jobs and livelihoods or enhance their skillsets and careers?
For employers, is AI a new path to productivity, creativity or both? Will automation and autonomous systems result in growing profits and innovations but reduced head counts and payrolls?
AI advocates (including those in CEO and other corporate suites) see innovative advancements and substantial productivity gains from machine-learning, automation and autonomous systems.
Breeanna Whitehead
Qwoted.com
Those worried about artificial intelligence fear a dystopian future where human capital and creativity gives way to autonomous supercomputers, machines and robotics.
But both sides of the coin agree: the world is changing— fast.
“AI is now the smartest person in the room,” said Breeanna Whitehead, a Texas-based AI consultant who works with businesses and entrepreneurs.
She said AI is fast becoming key to knowledge-based and creative work, requiring workers to adapt and pivot, pointing to past technology changes.
Whitehead said some jobs, such as SEO (search engine optimization) analysts, could go the way of telephone operators because of advancements.
“Now, when you are no longer the smartest person in the room, what’s important,” she said.
Whitehead said the key for employees is to pivot and utilize AI as a productivity and creativity tool and to enhance their “soft skills” that entail face-to-face and other human contact.
‘EVERY JOB’
These sea changes aren’t exclusive to technology jobs and operations with AI. They’re tied to new technologies presenting themselves across the economy.
“Every job is now a tech job,” said Mohit Bhende, CEO and cofounder of Karat, a Seattle-based AI company that screens and interviews hiring candidates for large technology firms.
Bhende said as more employers invest in AI, automation and data centers to fuel them, they are in a way deciding between machines and man.
He points to the big data center investments by big tech firms, such as Meta Platforms Inc. (Facebook’s parent company).
“I do think they are making a trade-off every day between human capital and GPU,” Bhende said, referring to initial investments in the backbone of AI and automation, such as graphic processing units and other technology hardware.
Bhende sees a divide among employers who see AI as way to improve productivity versus a creativity tool to create new products.
“The ones who talk about productivity talk about efficiency, cutting things, automating human processes,” Bhende said. “I think the companies who are going to get ahead and win in the coming (years) think about customers first. What else can I go build?”
PREP TIME
A new analysis by Boston Consulting Group sees as many as 55% of American jobs “reshaped” by AI adaptations and use and as many as 15% of jobs could be eliminated.
A Unitree G1 Edu humanoid robot makes an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange in August. The age of artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems confronts workers and their jobs. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
Ted Shaffrey
Neil Cawse, CEO and founder of Geotab, a Toronto-based transportation technology company with operations throughout the U.S., said workers need to be open and willing to evolve in the AI world.
“They have to be prepared to do something else,” Cawse said during a forum on AI’s workforce impacts hosted by media relations firm Qwoted.com.
Still, Cawse believes some workers will be displaced by AI-induced changes.
Benjamin Shiller, an economist at Brandeis University, said at the forum AI changes could push more workers into jobs and fields less exposed to automation and robotics.
But that influx could push downward pressure on wages in those fields with ample labor supplies, Shiller said.
An illustration depicting the concept of artificial intelligence (AI). Businesses, creators and workers all face crossroads with adoptions of AI across economies and societies.
Wikimedia Commons /. Mohamedgu123
SHORTER LUNCHES
The changes are prompting some workers to learn AI skills. Others are upping the number of hours they work.
That is according to a new survey of more than 3,000 American workers by human resources firm Resume.io.
The employee survey found 55% of workers are taking shorter lunch breaks and 67% are making sure they look busier as they seek to protect their jobs from AI-induced changes.
Another 3,000-worker survey by Delaware-based CareerMinds found 42% of employees are concerned about AI taking jobs and 64% believe their employers are already using artificial intelligence in staffing and job evaluation decisions.
“Workers aren’t anti-technology; rather, they’re anti-uncertainty,” said Amanda Augustine, a career coach and workforce expert with Careerminds. “Most people understand that AI is going to play a bigger role at work. What they really want is clarity about how it’s being used, some guardrails around the decisions that affect their careers, and a fair chance to reskill or retrain if their role starts to change.”
AI WASHING
Some employers see AI as fostering a more homogeneous corporate culture amenable to change and committed to technology advancements. Other companies may use AI as a guise to make other headcount cost cuts.
The latter is being referred to as ‘AI washing.’
“They are really just adjusting their workforce,” said Eric Vaughan, a technology industry veteran who is the CEO of Austin-based IgniteTech and its sister company GFI Software. Vaughan has drawn national attention for previously cutting much of his staff for not getting onboard with AI fast enough.
Eric Vaughan
Ghelani Studios
For others, the ideal landscape for workers is where AI acts as a job enhancer, not a job killer.
That can help ease employees’ worries that they are “expendable,” said Christina Muller, a New York-based workplace mental health expert, who also spoke at the Qwoted forum.
“It really behooves leadership to set the tone and understand AI is meant to be a copilot not a replacement on an already flying plane,” she said.