Ever since Midjourney and ChatGPT became widely popular among the general public there has been a looming fear of AI replacing most of the jobs we have today. Today, I want to talk about whether these fears carry any weight.
Experts have been working on artificial intelligence for quite some time. However, most of this work was done in research labs and the average person had no idea how powerful and useful this technology can be. Only after it was made available to the public did people begin to worry about the potential downsides of it.
Will artificial intelligence replace jobs? The short answer and the one you might not like to hear is yes. It will likely replace a lot of jobs. But that's normal in an industrial revolution. And make no mistake - we are currently experiencing the beginning phases of an upcoming industrial revolution.
While this may sound scary, one thing to keep in mind is that an industrial revolution creates more jobs than it does make obsolete. Here's a very interesting article published by the World Economic Forum on exactly what I'm talking about.
Which Jobs Will AI Replace?
There are certain jobs that AI began to replace a few years ago, yet most people have just recently started to notice. For instance, one of the best examples of what artificial intelligence can do effectively is customer support. This is why you might've noticed that many companies began to implement chatbots a few years ago that would provide you with automated responses to certain questions.
When the chatbot is unable to help you with the problem, only then do you get a hold of a real customer support agent. If you've used ChatGPT to any extent, you've probably already seen that it could be of great aid for customer service interactions. But even in this case, I don't see AI necessarily replacing humans.
People seem to confuse replacing jobs with changing the job description. It will not make a job obsolete. Instead, it will automate repetitive tasks and leave employees with the time to focus on their core responsibilities and connecting with customers on an emotional level.
If you've ever worked as a customer service agent, your department at the company was likely understaffed and overworked. This shouldn't be the appropriate environment for people who need to talk with clients and help them with different problems. That's why AI can create a better work environment.
I don't like to say that AI will replace jobs, but I think it's absolutely important to acknowledge that artificial intelligence will change some jobs forever. And that's completely normal if you observe how we as a society have progressed over time. Without change on a massive scale, we wouldn't have the technology available to us today.
With that being said, I would like to mention some jobs that AI is bound to change soon. These include data entry, proofreading, manufacturing, cab drivers, marketing, tech jobs, writing, and more. It's impossible to predict exactly which jobs will change (I suspect a majority of them), but I just wrote down the first that came to mind.
Which Jobs Won't AI Replace?
As much as we rely on technology as a society, we still need human connection. It's true that since smartphones became popular, the time the average person spends looking at a screen is much higher than before. People use smartphones for everything from education to work.
I think it's safe to assume that we will begin to rely on technology even more with each milestone in the development of artificial intelligence. Despite this, there will always be a need for human professionals in certain fields.
Some of the professions I don't see AI (or any other technology that we might develop in the future) replacing include teachers, therapists, medical professionals, social workers, and lawyers. These are the fields where you absolutely need connection with another human being that has the emotional capabilities to provide the support you need.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. It might be possible to create artificial intelligence that can understand and even possess emotions. If that happens, we will have much bigger problems to worry about than what jobs we'll assign to AI.
Which Jobs Will AI Create?
I've heard a lot of people recently worry about programmers being replaced by artificial intelligence. There is also a fear that anyone will be able to write programs because we've begun to see the possibility of input for programmers changing from computer code to natural language. It breaks down entry barriers.
In my opinion, people shouldn't worry about this having any impact on their job. You still need to have logic and critical thinking abilities to be a good programmer. What these changes may cause is people who use natural language as input and write good code in that way may replace bad programmers.
Artificial intelligence will make some jobs more accessible to the general public, provided they have the creative skills to do them. I believe that creativity will be more valued in both the near and distant future. People will be required to tap into their creative sides more to stand out in a world where seemingly any task can be automated.
Then there will also be jobs that AI will create. We're already starting to see that with prompt engineering, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. In this early phase of the artificial intelligence revolution, it's nearly impossible to predict the different types of jobs AI will create. However, there is no doubt that we'll see new types of jobs pop up in the future.
Using AI to Your Advantage
While many are worried about AI replacing their jobs, others are quick to dismiss the advancements we've made in this field. Skeptics will always exist when a radical global change is imminent.
There were a lot of people who thought that the internet was a useless invention. Here's an article published by Newsweek in 1995 saying how the internet won't survive past 1996. It's easy to dismiss something new, but my advice to you is that you embrace it.
Embrace the technology and embrace the change. This is what some of the most successful people in the world right now did when the internet came. They embraced the innovation and figured out how to create something with the novel technology at their disposal.
Okay, I wanted to create an image using Midjourney to inspire and motivate you to embrace technology, and what I got was the image above. I'm going to be honest, the image is kind of creepy. Motivation is one thing, but I don't want to become one with technology.
Now let's get back to the article.
I really don't think you should be worried about AI replacing jobs. If you spent any time using this technology in your professional life with an open mind and without the intention of cutting corners, you've likely noticed that it can help you become much better at your job.
In a recent Lex Fridman podcast, he and Ray Kurzweil talk about the possibility of AI replacing humans. Ray Kurzweil is a famous computer scientist and futurist who has made some incredible predictions about how modern technology will evolve.
He makes a great point in the clip mentioned above. Ray says that technology doesn't tend to replace humans. Instead, it increases our capabilities.
It currently might not make sense how AI will change the world. Even Sam Altman, one of the founders of OpenAI, said in a recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast that he can’t predict which jobs will be affected by artificial intelligence. What Sam’s statement shows is that we’re still in the infancy of the AI revolution. It’s impossible to make predictions about how jobs will change at this moment.
The best thing that you can do is keep up with developments and figure out which AI tool can help make your life easier in some way.
Final Thoughts
I believe that people who are worried about AI replacing jobs are simply choosing to focus on what is perceived to be the negative aspects of artificial intelligence development. If you observe any industrial revolution in the past, you’ll see that more jobs get created as a result of the technological advancements we make.
It’s beneficial to focus on how AI can increase your capabilities in the workplace. Now is the time to be curious and experiment with different AI tools. Embracing AI technology with an open mind will undoubtedly make you better at what you do.
More than anything, I think that the AI tools that were made publicly available so far help us be more creative. This is completely natural since you focus more on your core responsibilities when you automate mundane and repetitive tasks.
