Employees in different industries have been anxious about their job stability, especially with news floating around that AI will soon replace them. Tech giant IBM says that's not the case, but knowing how to use AI technology could provide an advantage over those who don't.
Time to Learn How to Use AI
AI is still not advanced enough to prompt a large-scale takeover of human jobs, but, it is very well on its way. In order to get with the times, one will have to familiarize themselves with AI tools and systems, as it could give a needed edge when it comes to employment.
Several companies are already trying to adopt AI into their systems to create a more efficient and streamlined workflow. It also helps take away workload from workers so they can focus on matters that AI cannot help with. With that said, AI is bound to be a major factor in skillsets soon.
IBM executives believe that around 40% of employees will need to polish their skills with the upcoming implementation of AI and automation in the next three years, as reported by Interesting Engineering. This affects around 1.4 billion of the global workforce.
This can be seen as good news since instead of being replaced by AI technology, workers can instead learn AI skills, which is an achievable goal. Around 87% of IBM executives said that generative AI will only augment the employees' roles and not replace them entirely.
With several applications for generative AI, the tech sector will not be the only industry that will require knowledge in using AI tools and systems. Sectors like retail, education, and financial services will have to brush up on AI tech as well.
This news could be taken as a comfort, but it couldn't deny the fact that some companies already have replaced workers with AI technology. Tools like ChatGPT are now able to do jobs that humans can, which companies see as a way to save on salary costs.
Read Also: Eating Disorder Helpline Staff Fired, Replaced with Faulty AI Chatbot
AI Skills are an Advantage, Not a Guarantee
Learning how to use AI could prove to be useful when applying for a job, especially for companies that will soon see the technology as a necessity. For current employees, it won't hurt to learn a new skill especially if it makes your job easier.
Sadly, there have already been cases when human workers have been replaced by AI entirely. For example, Engadget reported that an eating disorder helpline has replaced human staff with AI chatbots called Tessa bot. Although, it did not work as it was supposed to.
The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) ordered the chatbot to shut down after it gave harmful advice. The shutdown was said to be temporary. Instead of hiring back human staff, the chatbot would be fixed to get rid of bugs and provide better responses.
There have even been reports of a copywriter being replaced by ChatGPT. White-collar jobs are the ones that are at the most risk of getting replaced, especially ones that deal in numbers and data encoding.
Related: AI Will Likely Replace Skilled White Collar Jobs More, Says the OECD
