I’m not trying to be alarmist but it’s hard not to be when you look at some of the scary headlines. I’m sure you’ve been watching the headlines scream about how the world is about to end and mankind (personkind?) is ignoring all the perils. And no, I’m not talking about climate change(at least people are not calling that a hoax anymore) but the latest danger to us all – Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Goldman Sachs predicts 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by AI” was a recent headline from Forbes. AI can now pass the LSAT (one of the hardest tests to pass if you believe Meghan Markle in Suits 😊), score highly on the SAT and produce unique artwork. Automation has been the main reason for rising income inequality and mostly caused by income decline in blue collar jobs. And now, the next phase will be the blue collar component of white collar jobs. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but bear with me for a moment. A large number of workplace processes not related to manufacturing have slowly been getting automated – think the old spreadsheet macros on steroids. The benefits of AI will come with a high human cost according to PWC. Just look at what happened to all the stock and bond traders who were slowly replaced by algorithms and technology that measures trades in nano seconds.
Take a look at the gaming industry. A productive artist could create one character or scene daily. But with AI assistance, that same artist can now produce over 40 scenes per day, the illustrator explained. This has led to a 70% drop in employment in some segments. There are many examples like this across many different industries. According to PWC, the number could be s high as 30% in terms of job losses across industry.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that almost all of the job degradation will occur in the tactical roles or the tactical component of the jobs. Which means that you can protect yourself as an individual and your organization from this degradation. What you need to do is to identify the “blue collar” or tactical component of your role and plan for it to go away. And you need to replace it with the strategic components of your role
Because here’s the problem with all of these studies that are predicting this massive degradation. They are accurate but they miss a key nuance of the data they are looing at. According to Oxford University, “They tend to focus solely on the technical aspects of task execution while neglecting broader contextual inquiry about social components of work, organizational structures, and cross industry effects”. That’s a long winded academic way of saying what we have been telling you for the longest time. You need to be building up your strategic competencies because those are the competencies that will NOT be degraded by AI – at least not in the foreseeable future. Start focusing on your Stakeholder Value Drivers and start building up the strategic competencies and you can protect yourself from AI – in fact, you can and should be using AI to enhance your value proposition to your organization
