AI brings mixed emotions and opinions when referenced in the context of jobs. If you ask the question “Do you think #ArtificialIntelligence will be a net job killer or net job creator?” to colleagues, friends, or strangers you are bound to get some very strong opinions on this subject. For sure you will hear an interesting and conflicting set of opinions that range from “#AI will destroy all jobs as we know it” to “AI will enable us to work better and do new things we’ve never been able to do”.

AI will undoubtedly cause disruption across various industries with repetitive human tasks such as data entry being replaced. Task replacement from AI will start from the lower levels and gradually progress to higher chains as the industry switches to a new dimension. Research by Laura Tyson from the University of California Berkeley demonstrates unprecedented changes that AI will bring. According to her research, automation will take over most jobs done by humans because of speed and accuracy.

#Autonomousdriving is another example of AI disruption in the higher levels as self-driving cars will threaten the livelihoods of cab drivers. A self-driving car will be safer and accurate on the road compared to humans who make errors and goes to show the incoming wave of AI in the job market. Translation and speech recognition are other areas set to experience disruption, as machines will handle these human roles. At the same time, language,learning will become obsolete, as machines will translate speech that others will easily understand.

Alternatively, value addition from AI will increase as people learn to work smarter and bring out their best in the course of employment hence boosting productivity. As people work together with machines, decision-making and task processing will become easier thereby reducing overall costs for organizations. Companies such as EY have adopted AI technology that reviews contracts used for lease agreements and illustrates the value of AI in the future. Under the AI era, companies will optimize by allowing employees to engage in productive tasks that add value to their operations and boost their competitive advantage.

Re-skilling and up-skilling are some solutions to counter the changes that #AI will bring across the board where the workforce will be equipped for the new economy. Despite lingering questions about the overall implications of AI, there is no doubt that efficiency and productivity will increase.

If you look at various economic and analyst predictions, their assessments are all over the place, ranging from dramatic job losses across most economic sectors to large increases in employment due to dramatic increases in job productivity. Of course, as with everything, the true answer will be somewhere in the middle. There’s no doubt that AI will eliminate the need for many different kinds of jobs in many different categories. But at the same time, #AI will create new jobs in categories that we know of, and many more in categories that have yet to be created.

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