According to a recent report, 750 business leaders are using AI. resume builder37% say technology will replace workers in 2023. Meanwhile, 44% report that AI efficiency will cause them to be laid off in 2024.
But despite reports of AI-inspired layoffs, many experts disagree with Musk.
Julia Toothacre, resume and career strategist at ResumeBuilder, acknowledges that the numbers in the survey may not accurately reflect the broader business situation. She said, “There are still a lot of traditional organizations and small businesses that are not leveraging technology in the way that some of the larger companies are.”
While layoffs are a reality, AI technology also enables business leaders to restructure and redefine work.
Alex Hood, chief product officer at project management and collaboration software company Asana, estimates that half of the time we spend at work is spent doing what he calls “work for work’s sake.” I am. Here he’s referring to status updates, cross-functional communication, and all the other parts of the job that aren’t core to why we’re here.
“If we can reduce that thanks to AI, that could open up a lot of potential,” Hood said.
Without nuance behind the numbers, he says, statistics marking and predicting AI-driven layoffs reflect fear more than reality.
Mark Cenedella, founder of REIT Resumes & Ladders, said AI taking on task-based jobs will give humans the opportunity to move up the value chain. Chenedera said that “for the economy as a whole” workers will be able to focus on “integrating, structuring and defining task-based work”. He compares this change to mid-century office culture, when entire floors were occupied by typists, which were eliminated by the efficiency of word processing.
White-collar work and “human-centered” AI
according to Asana’s “State of AI at Work 2023” report, employees say 29% of work tasks can be replaced by AI. But Asana is a proponent of what it calls “human-centered AI,” which aims to enhance human capabilities and collaboration rather than replace humans completely. The more people understand human-centered AI, the more they believe it will positively impact their work, the report says.
White collar jobs and office jobs are somewhere in between. 19.6% to 30.4% of all employees worldwide, according to the United Nations. Analytical and communication tools have been redirecting knowledge work for years, and “generative AI should be considered another development in this long continuum of change.”
However, as of 2022, 34% of world population Since we didn’t yet have access to the internet, conversations about the impact of AI on attrition and the potential for reorganization of work needed to include a discussion of broader positions between the technology haves and the have-nots. there is.
Worker personal responsibility and tinkering with AI
For professionals looking to avoid redundancy in an AI-powered work environment, there are steps to take.
Chenedera says being a modern-day white-collar professional comes with a degree of personal responsibility. “Part of your job is to continue to develop new skills,” he said. “Even if you learned software five years ago, that’s not enough. You have to learn new software today.”
For example, while jobs such as research and data analysis are moving toward AI automation, companies still need people to direct the AI, understand the results, and take action.
“My advice to everyone is to understand how AI could impact your current industry position,” Toothaker said. “At least you have an idea of what to potentially expect instead of having no idea what’s going on.”
But Cenedella also recognizes that business leaders are expected to help employees continue to develop their skills during their tenure. “Companies that fund the development of their employees, purely out of self-interest, will be in a better position to go a little further than those that don’t,” he said.
Even Hood, which is at the forefront of creating collaboration and project management solutions using AI, is still experimenting with its products. In preparation for an upcoming performance review of members of his team, Mr. Hood conducted an experiment by asking his AI to summarize how his team was working with his members.
The AI created a characterization of their relationship based on all their common interests, a list of all the challenges and feedback between them, and the messages they sent each other. In this, Hood gives an example of what his AI tinkering looks like.
“You learn it by asking questions, finding out what it’s capable of, being disappointed in some ways, marveling in some ways, and then leaning into it,” Hood said. “The best thing employers can do is help them understand what technologies are unlocking possibilities through personalized experimentation with today’s AI.”
Although layoffs are occurring as a result of the current generation of AI, there is no historical evidence that such technological advances will cause mass job losses. The workforce has a history of adaptability, and improved technological capabilities will enable what Cenedera calls “higher value” work that future generations of AI can handle. It also increases productivity.