Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has emerged as a transformative force in our rapidly evolving technological landscape. While it holds the promise of incredible advancements, it also raises concerns, with job displacement being one of the most frequently mentioned. Many are worried about their jobs being replaced or even ceasing to exist. However, it is important to remember that GenAI is not only a threat, it can create opportunities such as workforce enhancement, helping us increase efficiency and learning.
CERTD & Long tail strategy in education
The silver lining offered by GenAI is that it can be utilized as a tool to provide personalized training and education. GenAI can be harnessed to create innovative educational solutions, making learning more accessible and personalized. CERTD is a company that has incorporated GenAI to create adaptive mobile-based learning tailored to blue-collar workers. Traditionally, the blue-collar workforce relied on hands-on training, with seniors who have extensive experience in the subject matter serving as the main resources for training. For example, coding learners can find numerous platforms offering coding courses, from online classes to self-paced tracks. This long-tailed education gives an array of choices and flexibility for learners by aiming for niche and personalised ways of learning. However, when it comes to learning blue-collar skills such as construction, hospitality, manufacturing etc., one would typically join a vocational school or gain practical experience through work. This traditional trajectory for the blue-collar force often follows a one mould fits all approach. CERTD offers a long-tail learning strategy by focusing on AI-generated learning content at a coarse level. GenAI has the potential to break the tradition of the apprenticeship, enabling workers to acquire new skills and fast-track their readiness for employment in an ever-changing job market.
Risk and Concerns
There’s a fly in the ointment as well. There could be concerns about the effectiveness, as blue-collar jobs heavily rely on hands-on skills. How effective would it be to learn from watching mobile devices? A potential solution could be introducing technologies such as AR in the training to enhance the learning experience.
Interested in this topic? Here is a good read:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedladd/2023/08/22/democratizing-opportunity-how-ai-enabled-long-tail-learning-empowers-the-blue-collar-workforce/
Thank you for the interesting post!
I agree that gen AI can replace jobs to certain extent however as you mentioned in the post, we can also think about positive results can be brought by gen AI as well.
Gen AI enables people to automate mundane tasks and focus on creative tasks so that it helps businesses be more productive and efficient.
To give one example, teachers are some of the most overworked workers today, at least in the US and Korea. If you consider all of the activities that teachers are engaged in, there are many things they’re doing that are not student facing but just administrative. I think the vast potential for this technology is how we can augment it. Adoption of gen AI can free up time so that it can then be repurposed in the case of a teacher who would then be able to spend more time directly with students to improve student outcomes.