Introduction
Throughout history, work has evolved from manual to cognitive tasks, with machines increasingly taking on complex roles like mathematics, language processing, and writing. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, there's concern about job displacement, leading to the perception that gains in AI may come at the expense of employment opportunities in the future of work.
However, we argue that this overlooks the unique qualities humans possess. While AI excels in speed and accuracy, humans offer intuition, emotion, and cultural sensitivity. Rather than competition, the future of work may involve collaboration, with humans and AI complementing each other's strengths for greater productivity and innovation.
"While AI excels in speed and accuracy, humans offer intuition, emotion, and cultural sensitivity."
Source: scitus Research
The Myth of Job Replacement
Common fears about AI revolve around job security, fearing widespread unemployment as machines take over human roles. However, such concerns stem from misconceptions. AI is designed to augment human capabilities, not replace them. It excels at handling repetitive tasks, freeing humans for more complex work where their unique skills shine. AI also offers insights from data analysis, opening new opportunities for innovation.
Crucially, AI requires humans to interpret and validate AI decisions, fostering collaboration rather than competition. Instead of replacing jobs, AI creates new opportunities by integrating into industries, requiring skilled individuals to develop and maintain AI systems. It boosts efficiency and productivity, leading to growth and more job opportunities.
In essence, embracing AI's potential to enhance human capabilities is key. By leveraging AI responsibly, humans can collaborate with technology to drive innovation and prosperity.
"AI is designed to augment human capabilities, not replace them. It excels at handling repetitive tasks, freeing humans for more complex work where their unique skills shine."
Source: Spring 2018 Global Attitudes Survey. Q80
Machine Intelligence vs. Human Intelligence
Today, advanced computers are widely acknowledged for their intelligence, as they can learn and make decisions based on the information they receive. However, this intelligence differs significantly from human intelligence.
In machine intelligence, computers are programmed or trained to analyze data, recognize patterns, make decisions, and solve problems in ways that imitate human intelligence. This can involve tasks such as natural language processing, image recognition, decision-making, and learning from data.
However, human abilities are more expansive. Unlike AI, which relies solely on available data, humans possess the ability to imagine, anticipate, feel, and judge changing situations. This enables them to address both short-term and long-term concerns. These unique human abilities do not depend on a constant stream of externally provided data, as is the case with artificial intelligence.
"Unlike AI, which relies solely on available data, humans possess the ability to imagine, anticipate, feel, and judge changing situations. This enables them to address both short-term and long-term concerns."
Humans represent what we call authentic intelligence — a different type of AI, if you will. This type of intelligence is essential in open systems, which are systems that refer to complex systems that interact with and are influenced by their environment, continuously exchanging energy, matter, or information. In these systems interactions with the external environment occur and external influences must be managed. Such environments require the ability to anticipate and adapt to sudden changes and distorted information exchanges, while also being creative in devising a vision and future strategy. In open systems, ongoing transformation efforts necessitate authentic intelligence for effective management.
Source: Shine, I. (2023) We always hear that AI will take our jobs. but what jobs will it create?, World Economic Forum.
Leveraging AI to Boost Employee Productivity
In the midst of these changes, AI emerges as a powerful tool to boost employee productivity while mitigating job displacement concerns. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, organizations should embrace it as a means to empower their workforce. Here's how:
AI excels at automating repetitive and mundane tasks, liberating employees to focus on tasks that demand creativity and strategic thinking. For example, AI-powered email filtering and sorting systems like Gmail's Smart Reply suggest responses based on email content, saving time and effort for employees to focus on the most important messages.
By entrusting routine tasks to AI, such as automating financial transaction recording and account reconciliation, employees gain bandwidth to engage in activities that directly contribute to business growth. This could involve developing innovative strategies, exploring new opportunities, and nurturing relationships with clients or stakeholders.
Moreover, AI can streamline various operational aspects, such as stock tracking, inventory reordering, and demand prediction based on sales data, thereby enabling employees to delve deeper into data analysis, trend identification, and strategic planning to expand the business, ultimately fostering innovation and success.
Expanding Current Roles: Rather than displacing roles entirely, new technologies often extend existing ones. For instance, the widespread adoption of personal computers empowered workers to create their financial models, resulting in increased demand for IT support and training to further enhance productivity and skillsets.