The World Economic Forum projects that machines with Artificial Intelligence will replace about 85 million jobs by 2025 with more than 12 million more jobs created in the same year. Could AI be your next colleague – or replacement at work?
Amid widespread positive impact of AI in our lives and work, comes the anxiety and worries of intelligent machines and innovations such as ChatGPT, Google Bard and others driving us to a jobless future and replacing humans.
AI, robotics and automation are transforming businesses, the way we work, creating new job opportunities, leading to the development of new skills and driving innovations. How can humans work with AI instead of being replaced by it for a brighter and more innovative future?
Some roles are becoming redundant, redefined and obsolete. Occupations such as online customer support, content writing, research, basic bookkeeping, proofreading, retail services, virtual assistants, telemarketers and some aspects of human resources are declining.
As more businesses adopt AI technologies, new roles are emerging. There is a growing demand for data professionals, and digital and marketing strategy specialists. Occupations requiring data analysis, machine learning or artificial intelligence skills are estimated to rise by 77 per cent in the next six years.
With AI automating routine and mundane tasks from scheduling meetings to answering questions; employees now have more time with increased job satisfaction and greater productivity to focus on higher-value tasks, creative, strategic and entrepreneurial endeavours requiring interpersonal interactions. Voice-based AI technologies such as Siri, or Alexa have become personal digital assistants.
We’re experiencing the rise of augmented intelligence across different industries from manufacturing to finance. They're going hybrid: building interfaces for humans and AI technologies to seamlessly collaborate, co-exist and work together side by side.
AI is great at interpreting billions of data points, but lacks emotional intellect, ontological sensitivity of judgment or creative skills to innovate or decision-making capabilities to run a business. Problem-solving, abstract thinking, interpersonal skills and critical judgment skills will continue to be in demand as AI becomes ubiquitous.
To diagnose and treat patients, health practitioners must possess qualities such as empathy, intuition and judgment. Similarly, excellent interpersonal skills and inventiveness are required of teachers in order to engage and motivate students.
Dr Geoffrey Hinton, Prof Yoshua Bengio, Prof Yann LeCun and other ‘Godfathers of AI’ recently issued warnings of risks against the rise of AI, stating that AI will be “either the best or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity”.
We are decades or more far away from AI reaching its full potential, comparable to taking full control of human intelligence to replace workers entirely in the era of Artificial Super Intelligence.
With the proliferation of AI, there are many kinks to be worked out before it becomes truly integral, with numerous concerns and questions about trust, bias, privacy, confidentiality, data breaches and safety.
Think manufacturing—the modern automated factories of today produce goods more efficiently while reducing costs and improving safety through robots, but some people oversee the machines, and there remains a market for handmade products.
We’ll still require human beings to understand and explain why a business decision was made and bring in the niche human skills to prompt, guide, collate, curate, edit and especially augment machines’ output. Human decision-making will continue to be critical, if not in every task, then at least at every level and across all fields.
In this AI-powered future, learn to embrace and work with AI, not fear it. The time to act is now, so take action, adapt, learn new skills that require creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking, develop the technical knowledge to build innovatively and leverage AI in a responsible and ethical manner to lead a sustainable, prosperous, just and peaceful world.
AI won't replace you, instead, a person using AI will enhance his abilities and create new opportunities for growth and success.
Data scientist at Unep
