Artificial intelligence is often described as something happening to people. I see it the other way round. AI is something people can shape, build and use to do better work.
My own career in AI started with curiosity. Before artificial intelligence was part of everyday business language, I wanted to understand what emerging technology could do and how it might change the way we work. That curiosity brought me to Kainos when AI was still a niche field, with no obvious route into it in Northern Ireland.
Since then, AI has moved from the margins to the mainstream. It now reaches across almost every organisation, sector and – increasingly – role. That opens real opportunities for people who want to build technology with a purpose.
Kainos is best known for helping to build the digital backbone of UK government. Our teams have built digital services people rely on at key moments in their lives: applying for a passport, taxing a car, booking an NHS appointment, registering a birth, reaching essential public services.
AI is currently used across the NHS to help clinicians read X-rays and CT scans (Alamy Stock Photo)
The hard part of this work is rarely the idea. It is making technology work reliably, in live operation, for millions of people, day after day. That is the work we know how to do.
This is not technology for its own sake. It is about making public services simpler, faster and more accessible.
AI lets us take that further. Used responsibly, it can remove complexity, improve processes and give people more time for the work that needs human judgement, creativity and empathy.
There is a fair debate about whether AI will replace jobs. My experience points the other way. AI is changing jobs, but it is also creating new ones and helping people work in more creative and meaningful ways.
In my own case, AI did not just change my job – it created the career pathway I am on. The same is true for many people I work with: roles that did not exist a decade ago.
Day to day, AI reduces the time I spend on administration, which frees me to focus on my team, our customers and our strategy.
I see a similar effect among our newest graduates. They use AI from the start of their careers, and so contribute to problem-solving and strategic thinking earlier than previous generations could.
The future of AI will not be built by one kind of person. It needs software engineers, strategists, designers, ethical thinkers, problem-solvers, and people who understand how technology affects real lives.
That is why building and using AI responsibly matters so much to us. We do not only ask whether something can be built. We ask whether it should be, how people will experience it, and what its wider effect will be.
For anyone considering a career in AI and wondering whether they belong: you do. You do not need to have started out in artificial intelligence. What matters is curiosity, adaptability and a willingness to learn.
Kainos is currently advertising more than 340 roles in Northern Ireland, for people who want to work on technology with real scale and purpose.
AI adoption is still early, and it will be shaped by the people who choose to work on it.
Ruth McGuinness, head of artificial intelligence at Kainos
If that is work you want to do, this is a good time to start – and Northern Ireland is a good place to do it.
- Ruth McGuinness is head of artificial intelligence at Kainos