Artificial Intelligence (AI) has captured the imagination of every industry vertical. From automation to analytics, enterprises are leveraging the goodness of AI to boost efficiency and optimize the business processes. Implementing Al in the workplace has taken over many simple and redundant jobs of corporate offices and manufacturing units. The impact of AI in the workplace is definitely disruptive and is poised to change the future of employment.
This is why employees across the globe are skeptical about how AI can impact jobs. Let us dive in and find out how AI can impact the future of work forever.
1. AI Will Interfere With Several Jobs
As per McKinsey’s analysis, there are several categories of occupations that can be automated easily to enhance efficiency and cut costs. These jobs include physical labor in a structured and predictable work environment along with data collection and data processing. All this includes around 50 percent of the tasks that people do in all the sectors. The job categories that have the least possibility to have any impact from AI are management, expertise training and face-to-face interaction with stakeholders.
That means that almost the entire workforce is going to be affected by automation. However, only around 5 percent of the occupations have the scope to get fully automated by current technologies. There are also several occupations whose some components can be automated. That means that some of your work could go in the hands of automation and you will be left with partial work to execute. Hence, the nature of every occupation will change drastically with the intervention of machines and AI.
2. Job Loss
Automation is poised to replace several redundant and laborious jobs. For instance, software test automation has replaced manual testing. Now it requires fewer test engineers and lesser time to execute the same testing tasks. As per a research report, more than 15 percent of the workforce across the globe could lose their jobs due to automation. However, this number could vary depending upon the penetration of AI in the coming years.
The following factors will impact the penetration of artificial intelligence in the workplace in the coming years.
- Technical feasibility in different sectors and geographies
- Labor market dynamics that includes supply and demand of labor, quality of skills and wages
- Advanced economies with higher wage costs will see an accelerated implementation of AI to cut costs and enhance efficiencies. Emerging economies will see slower growth due to the lower cost of the cage than the implementation of AI in the workplace.
3. Job Creation
The above points might create the impression that implementing AI in the workplace is means that more jobs will be cut in the coming future. However, the number of job creation in the future will offset the jobs lost due to AI. Based on a report from the World Economic Forum, AI in the workplace brings changes by adding 58 million net new jobs in the next few years. Businesses are set to see a brisk growth in the present decade due to technological efficiency. This will lead to the opening of jobs in other sectors.
Partial automation will require humans to complement machines for the efficient execution of tasks. As a result, jobs will move from redundant tasks to management and troubleshooting. For instance, employees in Amazon who earlier used to pick consignments have now become robot operators, monitor the accuracy of operations and ensure resolution of any abrupt disruptions in the process.
4. Workforce Transition
Advanced automation powered by AI will require a workforce that possesses next level technological skills. Demand for emotional and social intelligence will grow. Enterprises will look for cognitive skills including complex knowledge processing, creativity, and critical thinking.
Demand for basic digital skills has already grown and now enterprises want its workforce to have knowledge of at least one coding language. As a result, demand for manual and physical skills has already been declining but it is still one of the largest categories of the workforce in the world; especially in emerging economies.
This situation will put greater pressure on the workforce with manual skills to upgrade their skills by learning about technology and coding. As a result, it is obvious how AI can impact the future of work since many workers will change their occupations and migrate to machine-assisted automated jobs.
5. Change in Workflow
With the deeper integration of software and machines in the workplace, the workflow has evolved and will evolve more along with the technological advancement for greater integration of humans and machines. For instance, humans can become checkout assistance executives for checkout machine spots to answer queries or troubleshoot bugs during operations.
The system-wide brainstorming will lead to greater workflow enhancement. The advent of AI-enabled machines would also lead to the redesign of workplaces to accommodate the integration of machines efficiently. Workflow processes will also be designed to ensure the safe and secure interaction of humans and machines.
6. Wage Disparity
AI in the workplace is likely to kill low wage jobs that are labor-intensive or redundant in nature. This would include lower wages for teachers, nursing aide jobs and clerks among others where there would be a lot of assistance from artificial assistance.
However, enterprises will continue to pay higher salaries to high-skill professionals including doctors and managers. This situation shows how AI can impact the future of work, as long as it will create a greater job disparity among professionals from different verticals and at different career stages,
These are some of the important points that show how AI can impact the future of work forever.