Embracing the Disruption

The Impact of AI on Businesses and Jobs

In the fast-paced digital era, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force, revolutionising industries, but forcing people to contemplate its impact on business and the labour market in the long-term. While AI presents exciting opportunities for efficiency, productivity, and innovation, it raises concerns about job displacement and other ethical considerations.

These new technologies, such as machine learning algorithms and automation, enable businesses to streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and improve efficiency. This can free up time for employees to do more creative tasks or work on complex projects for the benefit of the business. But as AI automates certain tasks and processes, there is a legitimate concern about job displacement.

Roles that are repetitive and routine in nature, such as data entry or assembly line work, may become obsolete. This could potentially lead to unemployment and necessitate the reskilling and upskilling of workers to adapt to new roles. Provided that the correct systems are in place, this could result in a happier and more fulfilled labour market. Reskilling and upskilling programs will become imperative to bridge the skills gap and ensure employability in the AI-driven landscape.

The growth of AI will also create new niche fields for employees that have been displaced by its arrival. Consider AI chatbots. Although they have the capacity to assist with simple tasks and pointing people to the information they need, anyone who has tried to accomplish something more challenging will know that you need to request a support agent to achieve anything. The AI handles the easy, simple requests, and a person is on hand to deal with the more complex enquiries.

Starting a Riot

Attention-grabbing headlines feed into fears that large swathes of the labour market will soon be obsolete, and unemployment will skyrocket. In May, the Center for AI Safety (CAIS) released a rather serious statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societalscale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” Signed by executives from OpenAI and DeepMind, Turing Award winners, and other AI researchers, they certainly garnered a lot of attention. However, we should question why people who are working to bring about AI would release this statement. Is it possible they were trying to raise the profile of their work? It seems strange that the people pushing and investing money in a technology would want everyone aware that it could kill us all. This comes hot on the heels of a more detailed and explicit warning from ‘Chief Twit’ Elon Musk, who months earlier warned that we should pause the development of anything more advanced than GPT-4.

As quoted in ARS Technica, Dr. Sasha Luccioni, a machinelearning research scientist, likens the new CAIS letter to sleight of hand: “First of all, mentioning the hypothetical existential risk of AI in the same breath as very tangible risks like pandemics and climate change, which are very fresh and visceral for the public, gives it more credibility,” she says. “It’s also misdirection, attracting public attention to one thing (future risks) so they don’t think of another (tangible current risks like bias, legal issues and consent).”

Despite alarm bells ringing inside the AI camp, research on the impact of AI to the UK labour market, commissioned by the UK government, found that the impact would not be great.

Published in 2021, the report found that over the next 5 years, 7% of jobs would be at risk due to AI, which rose to 30% after 20 years. However, it also reported that there would be lots of job creation related to AI productivity and economic growth. Overall, the report found that the impact of AI on UK employment levels would be neutral.

All Roads lead to Godwin (‘s Law)

Another concern that keeps surfacing about AI, is the ethical considerations. Issues like data privacy, bias in algorithms, and the responsible use of AI must be addressed to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability. Businesses must establish guidelines and frameworks to mitigate these risks and uphold ethical standards.

Chatbot Tay, by Microsoft, was taken offline after only 48 hours when it started praising Adolf Hitler; an extreme example. More striking was the experience of Joy Buolamwini, who discovered that the facial recognition algorithms used in her lab in MIT didn’t recognise her, or any other black face. It had been trained by white creators who only thought to use white faces when developing it.

Additional serious ethical questions have been raised, as examples have found AI robots trained on billions of images identified women as homemakers, and ethnic minority people as janitors or criminals. These bots are trained on input, including information online and conversations with users.

To make sure that AI works for everyone, we need to ensure that our own biases and deliberate bad actors aren’t hobbling AI almost before it’s started.

Don’t Panic (and always remember your towel)

As any future traveller knows, it’s important to be prepared for anything. Embracing AI technologies offers businesses opportunities for improved efficiency, enhanced customer experience, data-driven insights, and innovation. However, the disruptive nature of AI raises concerns about job displacement, ethical considerations, and the need for a transformed workforce. Striking a balance between leveraging the benefits of AI and addressing its challenges is crucial for businesses and workers to thrive in the era of intelligent automation.

As businesses navigate the AI revolution, proactive measures must be taken to reskill and upskill the workforce, establish ethical guidelines, and foster a collaborative environment. By embracing the potential of AI while addressing its challenges, businesses can position themselves for success in the era of intelligent automation. With thoughtful planning, continuous learning, and a human-centric approach, we can harness the power of AI to drive innovation, create new opportunities, and shape a future where humans and machines work together harmoniously to achieve transformative outcomes –both in and out of the workplace.