As BIM students, everyone assures us we have a bright future waiting for us. Information management jobs and new advancements in technology should go hand in hand. However, fast improvements in artificial intelligence technologies could cause mass unemployment faster than we thought. Would this impose a threat on our future jobs as well?
The issue was already raised in 2014, just after Google announced their acquisition of DeepMind. DeepMind is a company that is active in the areas of machine learning and deep learning, and people speculated that Google wanted to use DeepMind’s technologies to give ‘brains’ to the robots Google had recently purchased.
In the past, new advances in technology simultaneously created new jobs. Experts, however, are afraid this won’t be the case this time. They warn that robots are gaining enhanced senses and dexterity, which allows them to perform a broader range of manual tasks. Furthermore, robots with AI algorithms in place will be able to substitute human labour in non-routine cognitive tasks, which has not been able before. Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne of Oxford University even suggest that 47% of the jobs could be automated within two decades.
Would our jobs be jeopardized as well? Luckily, it would most likely not influence the jobs we would be aiming for. Studies have researched which jobs are the most vulnerable, which are jobs in logistics, administration, and insurance underwriting. Furthermore, a distinction should be made between AI technologies that replace jobs and AI technologies that help people doing their jobs better. Not all AI technologies are thus replacing human labour, but rather transforming jobs. However, these jobs require new and different skills, meaning that people will become unemployed unless there is a so-called skills revolution.
Nevertheless, it is unsure and hard to predict what the impact will be on unemployment. In my opinion, it is good that experts and academics are raising this issue. What do you think? Will AI have such large consequences on unemployment?
Sources:
Advances in Artificial Intelligence could lead to mass unemployment, warn experts
BoE exec warns of AI job threat
With AI, jobs are changing but no mass unemployment expected – UN experts
Joseph Stiglitz on Artificial Intelligence: ‘We’re going towards a more divided society’
Hi Livia,
Thanks for writing on this interesting topic! I agree that it is difficult to predict what the impact of AI will be on (un)employment in the future. I am also of the opinion that AI will most likely not replace all jobs as a whole, but will more likely replace tasks involved in completing aspects of certain jobs.
I would like to talk more about the skills-revolution you mention at the end of your post, as I find it very intriguing. I think that new technologies are changing traditional job descriptions indeed, which will ultimately transform the skills necessary to execute the jobs in question. Apart from a greater focus on IT related skills, I think that many companies will also increasingly look for skills related to improving customer satisfaction, such as communication and problem solving. One of the reasons why this is probable, is because of the rapid upsurge of consumerism. It also has to do with the fact that due to digitization, companies will probably become less departmentalized and cooperation will therefore become more important. In turn, these alterations could influence the way that companies look for talent, thus also affecting the area of personnel selection.
The report in the link below elaborates on the transformation of skills as well as automation in the future workforce. In my opinion, an interesting read!
https://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/59db87a7-16c6-490d-ae70-1bd7a322c240/Robots_Need_Not_Apply.pdf?MOD=AJPERES