The Potential Impact of AI on Employment and the Future of Work!

There is no doubt that technological upgrades in the business lead to significant changes. However at one hand, there are multiple positives of these upgrades, and there are plenty of negatives too.

Historically, it has been seen that advanced technology has led to multiple job losses. On the flip side, it has created new ones too. As of today, the technology at its prime that is disrupting the market and causing significant changes is AI (Artificial intelligence). Not just in IT (information technology) but from multiple industries to multiple use cases and workflows, AI is revamping the way operations are led within an organization. The future of businesses is an artificial intelligence future.

In this article, we will be assessing the impact of AI on employment and learn about the various facets related to this topic.

History of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Significant Advances in the Realm

The majority of great and novel ideas have resurfaced from imaginative writers. Writers that were behind movies like ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Metropolis’. Alan Turing, a polymath often known as the father of AI was the first person who thought of turning this into reality. He thought of the mathematical possibility of implementing AI for solving problems. He provided the logical framework in his paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’. After that, the AI idea flourished between 1957 to 1974 because of better computational power, more storage capacity, and speed. However, a lot of things happened between this period and the period later on.

Have a look…

• The initial AI research was primarily focused on developing symbolic reason systems and logic-based approaches. The idea was to create something that could solve problems just like a human would do.
• The period between the 1960s and 1970s marks the development of rule-based expert systems. Here the potential of AI for solving practical applications was demonstrated.
• In the 1980s, the focus shifted towards Machine Learning. A technology that would allow computers to learn data and improve performance over time by sampling user data and learning from it.
• The 1990s marks the inception of neural networks which is an advanced application of machine learning. The idea was to create models that were similar to how the human brain works.
• In the early 2000s, AI research was dominated by the statistical usage of machine learning in different industries.
• In the mid-2000s, deep learning was conceived that made use of multiple neural networks having multiple layers to make sense of complex patterns in data.
• As of now, the focus of AI research is primarily based on reinforcement learning and generative models.
• Currently, the usage of AI is multifaceted and has been adopted in different areas such as natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, gaming, etc.
• As of today, AI is under ethical and societal scrutiny based on multiple factors such as bias, privacy, and displacement of jobs.

Impact of AI on Business

AI in business has been radically changing the landscape. At one end, where there were plenty of redundant jobs and work areas, the AI tech liberated it from the clutch of monotony, slow-paced work, and most importantly manual errors. This was another factor that could easily canvas the impact of AI on employment.

Businesses have adopted AI for various facets of their work. Here are some of the most common factors that create impact of artificial intelligence on employment by providing better services to businesses such as:

• Automation of routine tasks for clearing time for employees to contribute in creative and strategic tasks.
• Reduction of cost by optimizing the operations.
• Figure out trends and patterns to stay competitive in the market.
• Generating insights for better decision-making.
• Capability to better detect frauds.

With the above pointers, we have barely scratched the surface. The application of AI has vast scope in terms of business application and higher ROIs. This is the reason people working in different industries are threatened because they understand that the effect of AI on employment can be cathartic in some spaces. Spaces where employees are either replaced or have to look for a completely new job.

What are the industries that will have the most impact on artificial intelligence on employment?

Currently, AI has been moonlighting multiple jobs with the inception of generative AI. A lot of people also believe that the impact of artificial intelligence on employment could be the replacement of employees. It is not we who believe it but an article by Forbes clearly states the following facts of today:

• From its inception, the usage of ChatGPT has been multifaceted keeping college students in context. The majority of usage was in generating essays and code pieces.
• Bard, a generative AI by Google and a possible tough competitor to ChatGPT is already gaining prominence.
• A report by Goldman Sach suggests that over 300 million jobs can be affected due to generative AI.
• “The AI of today can affect white-collar workers too” is suggested by research from the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI.

There are innumerable impacts of artificial intelligence on employment, however, the idea behind stating these facts was to get you an understanding.

The three prime industries that will bear the most on the spectrum impact of artificial intelligence are:

1. Banking and Finance

Reports by Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance and the World Economic Forum suggest the usage of AI by 56%. This includes implementation in both facets i.e. implementation and revenue generation. The World Economic Forum also states that the affect of AI inclusion will be threefold i.e. job cuts, job creation, and enhanced efficiency. It also states that 27% of jobs in China’s financial sector will be replaced by AI.

2. Legal Services

A research paper was published in Social Science Research Network that was 14 pages long and submitted on the topic of same-sex marriage by an attorney. Andrew Perlman, an American entrepreneur, suggested that AI could provide legal help for people who can’t afford it. 

3. Media and Marketing

A majority of sensational news today is paraphrased. It has been reported that major media companies such as Business Insider, CNBC, CNET, etc have all used ChatGPT. In fact, as per Salesforce research, almost 84% of marketers responded ‘Yes’ for using AI in 2020.

Note: Want to learn more details about the role of AI in legal industry, here’s an article to fill-in your curiosity.

Stats that clearly signals towards possible job losses in the future

There are multiple stats that focus on the relevance of the idea behind job losses due to AI inclusion. Here are some stats aggregated by Zippia that creates a bigger picture on the impact of AI on jobs. 

• Around half of the companies running today are using AI in some shape or form.
• It is estimated that between 400 to 800 million people might have to move because of AI automation. Another 375 million have to find jobs in different categories that never existed.
• A major 47% of the chunk of USA jobs will be at risk of automation.
• Manual jobs such as data entry, data processing, customer support, bookkeeping, etc. are more likely to get completely automated.
• In 60% of the jobs, almost one-third of the jobs can be automated because an AI can automate one aspect of the job but not the entire job. Also, only 5% of a job can be fully automated.

How will AI impact the future of work?

AI has already made its way to organizations. The majority of work that is done today is directly and indirectly monitored by systems that use AI algorithms. It is to gain insights from those data to better the decision-making process. However, in the coming time, the requirement for similar applications of AI will increase.

This will demand organizations to make changes to the systems, businesses would be required to make strategic changes and much more. Most likely all the redundant tasks and operations would be done by machines while humans would be hired to monitor it. Overall, the workforce would require retraining and the capability to work alongside and with AI.

Wrapping Up!

There is no doubt that the impact of AI on employment will be cathartic in many cases. In fact, there are many top artificial intelligence companies that are constantly producing solutions for multiple organizations. Artificial intelligence future entails jobs that are repetitive and redundant are surely going to be replaced by AI. However, it does not mean that there won’t be opportunities.

Organizations would still require human intervention because AI is very objective in nature. It can replicate the same action in a number of cases, however, if the situation flips, AI won't have an answer, and the workflow would require a human operator or mediator to drive its action in the right direction. As an employee, it would be beneficial for us to embrace AI and make use of it in the best way possible. This would create a sustainable environment that could retain both the machine and its human counterpart intact in a business.