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Artificial Intelligence is not something that was invented just a few decades ago, but it dates back thousands of years to ancient Greece with the advent of the “automaton”. Since its first appearance, it has evolved and gone through a refinement process throughout the years, particularly since the 1900s. After this period, it started to be widely incorporated into many parts of society, changing people’s perceptions of the future. Many major companies have integrated AI into their processes, while students and educators are now increasingly benefiting from its use. Moreover, it is starting to find applications in the medical field to assist both healthcare personnel and patients alike. This rapid expansion of AI across sectors raises a question for current and future workers: what role will AI play in the future of employment?
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that, overall, AI will affect 40% of jobs around the world, affecting up to 60% in advanced economies. On a similar note, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report has stated that AI will displace 85 million jobs due to automation, while it creates 97 million new roles, accounting for the evolution of the needs of the population. The job displacement and new job creation depicts the need for a progression in the workforce, as well as the shift in labor distribution between machines, algorithms and humans.
Due to the evolving nature of the job market, employers and educators think of AI as a tool to acquire skills and improve existing employment opportunities, looking to boost corporate productivity or staff’s career prospects, among others. It is because of this that there should be an increase of public investment into digital skills of current and future workers, and new digital highways to allow new economic opportunities to be available. This investment could allow workers to acquire new skills or reshape those they already possess, leading to the embracement of lifelong learning.
Multiple companies have already implemented AI successfully in their day-to-day operations. One example is Johnson & Johnson, which has benefited from Artificial Intelligence to assess and plan its workforce in a way that it deems “impossible to do manually”. It has also used this tool to find future potential skills to be useful in the organization, where they can be implemented and who should possess them. Other companies prefer to use AI during the recruiting phase to identify the needed skills in candidates’ CVs, which lowers the costs and cuts the time of recruitment of new employees. Nevertheless, problems can arise due to the tool’s algorithm and the information which employers put into it, as well as the data received from candidates. Lastly, customer-oriented companies can take advantage of AI tools to prepare their employees on how to sell their products, treat the client or discuss the clients needs to offer the needed services. This method encourages workers to develop their offers and behavior according to the situation and client who they are serving.
To conclude, the increasing implementation of AI across sectors will not decrease job opportunities, but will rather increase them and adapt them according to the evolving necessities of the firms and population. Due to the growth in AI use, one of the most demanded jobs will be that of AI specialists, due to the need to supervise the tools’ tasks and assignments. It is important for stakeholders such as governments, businesses, and educational institutions to collaborate and ensure that the workforce will be ready to innovate and adapt to future challenges and advances.
