The advent of AI has changed the landscape of work and everywhere in the corporate world and other organisations, people are sitting up and taking notice. Already, with work from home or ‘hybrid’ working, employment has been changed significantly. Now with the advent of AI, work is changing for good. What we will have to decide is whether to let AI take all our jobs or some of it, or whether to let it take any job at all.
The lean company
Some contend that AI will not be able to do all our jobs and that even robots cannot take all our jobs. However, the truth is that companies are already implementing AI such that their demand for new jobs has decreased. Some companies have stopped recruiting altogether while others are doing lay-offs. Whilst it is true that AI and robots will be able to perform most of the jobs that are currently on the market, owing to different efficient AI models, it is also true that AI will not be able to automate everything.
This is why we will need people who will be able to use AI in their work; for example companies will need people who will be able to use ChatGPT to search for information and applications such as Bing to generate AI images. AI is now also able to generate videos through text-to-video applications such as Google’s Gemini and Open AI’s Sora. Other applications such as Microsoft Power BI can efficiently analyse data and present data in a way that is easily readable by humans. For work that is labour intensive, robots are being implemented, an example being the Tesla Bot Optimus.
Image: The future of work
Universal high income
Hence, companies of the future will be going lean and only those people that can use AI effectively will be needed. The workforce will need to be trained in AI in order to stay relevant in the coming era. The benefit of AI will be that it will be easier for people to create and manage companies. Other people advocate the opinion that jobs will become hobbies and that AI will free up time for leisure.
This raises the question of income. Elon Musk has suggested that people might be getting universal maximum income instead of just a universal basic income. Already, many countries have put in place the universal basic income which has become a popular measure for many governments. Universal maximum income means that AI powered economies will become wealthy and that people will be entitled to a high income rather than just a basic income.
The jobs of tomorrow
Already some countries have implemented the four-day work week with no decrease in productivity due to AI making up for the difference. In the future, this four-day work week will give way to the three-day work week, freeing up time for people to have more leisure and engage in other activities and hobbies. The new jobs of tomorrow are jobs such as AI & Machine Learning specialists, Big data analysts, BI analysts, commercial designers, etc. Most of these jobs will require people to be able to make effective use of AI and ICT.
AI & Dystopia
What we will have to be careful in the future is with AI and dystopia. If AI is not assessed for its potential for misuse before being deployed, it will inevitably contribute to dystopia in society – a situation where AI brings undesirable effects and changes to society. The EU can be called upon to debate over the kind of changes we would like to see in the workplace. Most likely, we as a society will prefer a situation where AI doesn’t take all our jobs, only some of it and that we get to retain our jobs with a four or three day work week in the near future. However, this will depend upon how countries debate and legislate about AI, how we give time for societies to bring everyone on the same page and for there to be more inclusion in the way we proceed onwards.
By KLP (June 27, 2024)
Image credits: Bing
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