Should we be scared to lose our jobs?

An often-discussed topic in the world of AI is whether we should be scared of losing our jobs. There are many opinions on the subject, and in this edition, I want to share my view on this question.

Technical Innovations

AI is not the first market disruptor that we have witnessed. As technology evolves more quickly, we are running into the challenge of automating certain tasks and, in some cases, entire jobs. This scares employees, and they might become more resistant to change within the organization. In the past, when the Internet first became a thing, people were afraid that their jobs would disappear. Looking back at the beginning of the internet, we have learned that jobs changed, some jobs disappeared, but the major change was that new jobs were created to fully leverage this new technology. Another example is the arrival of smartphones, which greatly enhances employee connectivity, making it effortless to search for information from anywhere. It was even stated that anyone with a smartphone had more information within their grasp than a US president in 1980. The coming of smartphones had the same result, though, and it ended up creating new jobs instead of costing jobs. There are many more examples that are similar; BlockChain, no & low code tools, RPA etc.

Will AI impact our current job market?

The difference with prior technological innovations and AI is that AI is evolving at such a rapid pace that the world is finding it hard to keep on top of it. The landscape of AI applications is changing so quickly that the market for AI solutions is becoming hard to navigate. While most people have used ChatGPT by now, they are still unfamiliar with all the other available applications of AI.

Our job market will see changes as AI develops into mature solutions for business problems. It will automate certain tasks, and some jobs fully. But the most important takeaway for me is that employees will need to adapt as always. In this ever changing worlds "live long learning" has become the mantra fo any successful employee. Organizations are partly responsible for empowering employees to leverage AI successfully, especially since their demands for productivity remain at an all-time high while we have to do the work with fewer people due to a highly strained job market.

Currently, we cannot look further than a year concerning the development of AI. As such, it is hard to predict its full effect on the job market. What we have learned from the past, however, is that technological innovation will create new jobs, change current jobs, and alter the way we work. Employees who can adapt to these changes will be capable of riding this new wave. The best moment is always to start adapting today.

How can you start today as an individual and as an organization?

As an individual, you can start to leverage the capabilities of GenAI by creating an account on any GenAI model, although I would recommend ChatGPT. Start to interact with AI and discover what it can do for you. Search for training in prompt engineering and learn how to communicate effectively with AI models. Prompting will be the biggest challenge that you will face this year, and learning how to prompt proficiently will put you ahead of the competition.

In 2024 we will see the wide adaptions of private models like ChatGPT that don't share data outside of the organization, and more importantly the adaptions of Microsoft Co-Pilot that will empower employees to leverage AI in the Office 365 suite. In order to prepare for adaption organizations need to realize that AI is not a siloed topic. It should be seen as an organization-wide challenge that needs to be carried by the board of management. The organization's Learning & Development departments should start to introduce on-the-job learning for Prompting; managers should start introducing GenAI solutions and create time and space for their employees to experiment with them. Successful prompts should be gathered in one place and made available to everyone so that collective learning is enabled. Frequent updates and knowledge sharing should be empowered by management to land this new capability effectively. It is essential to start with baby steps instead of a giant big bang across the organization. It will take time for employees to adapt as this is an entirely new skill for everyone.

It might be frightening to start this journey. By now, we have all realized that AI is here to stay, and we will have to adapt to stay ahead of the competition. If you don't know how to start as an organization, seek out partners that can help you navigate through the murky waters that are GenAI.