Fear of Job Loss: Understanding the AI Revolution
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution that has been sweeping the tech world over the past few years. It’s really quite fascinating, and I for one am a fan of what it can bring to us in terms of efficiency and convenience.
We humans have always been afraid of computers and machines taking our jobs. However we have always though the jobs that become obsolete are the ones that involve dominantly ‘left-brain’ activities like accounting and programming.
That said, I was definitely not expecting AI to come for our creative jobs first. Copywriting tools like Jasper AI or text-to-image processors like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion are able to do amazing things today. So I have a feeling the first jobs that are going to disappear are related to creative fields.
Read on if you want to stay ahead of the curve and find out how Artificial Intelligence could disrupt the way we work and live our lives!
Professions evolve with technology.
I guess, we’ve been expecting computers to take over our jobs since, the dawn of personal computing. Even before that, during the industrial revolution, people were already scared that the machines were going to take away their livelihood.
Despite our fears, AI is now here. It will disrupt the way we work and live our lives and most importantly the way we think about our jobs and career paths in the near future.
Huge amount of jobs will become unnecessary in the next 2-3 years.
Opportunities lay among biggest disruptions. As many jobs get thrown into a shredder, a big amount of new jobs will get created as well. Our task once again is to adapt to the changes. The fastest to change will be the winners of this new age.
What jobs will be obsolete first?
Growing up in the era of computers, I always knew that these machines would be the major game-changers of our lifetime—disrupting the ways we work and live our lives. But, I honestly never expected that AI would be an attacking force to the creative fields first.
Why? One of the reasons probably is because it’s acceptable to make mistakes that manifest as “happy accidents” and ultimately lead to something more beautiful than if done using manual methods or by humans. These “happy accidents’ would be a red flag in fields like accounting or programming, but in creative fields they are inspirational and exciting.
A few examples of jobs that are threatened by AI in the short run:
Designers – no need to ask a designer to make you a Christmas or a birthday card or design an image for poster. You can let Midjourney handle it.
Product copywriters – marketing copy for your product can be written and analysed by letting ChatGPT do it.
Will AI replace human jobs in the future?
The simple answer is yes—AI will surely replace human jobs, and quite many of them. But it’s important to note that those are mostly white-collar positions. People who work in offices behind a computer are to be affected most by AI. But also keep in mind, these are the positions that can actually gain the most from AI as well.
Blue-collar jobs are probably safe for now as computers still cannot do manufacturing or are any good in moving physical objects. That means we’ll still need cleaners, factory workers, builders and other such folks into the future.
So if you’re a salesperson, analyst, programmer or even a copywriter, you should start looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve and invest becoming friends with AI now.
How to stay ahead of the curve?
Machine intelligence and AI-assistance is already beginning to help out in many of the fields that were once thought to be safe from automation. All kinds of bots are becoming commonplace in many IT and engineering positions. Tools like Github Copilot are speeding up development cycles and costing businesses less than ever before.
No matter how we feel about it, it’s not something we can turn back from. The only way to move forward is to accept it and embrace it. We need to start using AI to enhance ourselves: learn new skills, try out new possibilities and gain an advantage over those who are still stuck in the “old ways”.
Start investing your time into AI
If you’re not already into playing with AI, it’s probably time to start. The AI revolution is real. And it’s going to disrupt the way we work, think and live our lives. So if you want to stay ahead of the curve and keep your job, now’s the time to start investigating AI and seeing how it can help you do your job better.
There are lots of exciting AI tools out there and new ones are emerging every day. That said, here’s a nice list of some that might be useful in various fields, shared by @Pratham at Twitter
Making sure you invest time in interacting with an AI will ensure you stay ahead of the game now—and make sure you don’t become one of those who lose their job due to a lack of preparation for the inevitable transition!
The future is here. Embrace it.
So, as the AI revolution continues to march on, it is becoming more and more clear that it has arrived to disrupt, not just traditional left-brain jobs, but also right-brain ones as well. Next time you are feeling complacent about your job prospects, just remember that your job could be at risk of automation by an AI system. It is time to start thinking of ways to stay ahead, lest your job be taken over by an all-knowing chatbot. Be warned… the future is here!
