An AI specialist has cautioned that the surge in artificial intelligence might cause significant disruption in the employment sector in the coming year and a half.
In recent years, the progress in artificial intelligence has been remarkable. Our everyday lives have been transformed significantly, and businesses are striving to integrate AI across various facets of their operations. This transformation, which has the potential to simplify work life, has also led to layoffs as organizations attempt to leverage this technology to cut costs.
This shift has understandably sparked concerns that more positions and even whole sectors might be jeopardized. According to experts, this shift might occur sooner than anticipated.
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, predicts that AI will achieve ‘human-level performance’ in white-collar jobs. These positions generally encompass fields like banking, finance, risk management, internal auditing, insurance, and accountancy.
Suleyman shared with the Financial Times: “White‐collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer – either being, you know, a lawyer, or an accountant, or a project manager, or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”
This transformation is currently underway, with Suleyman highlighting the prevalence of ‘AI-assisted coding’ in the present.
If AI can perform the duties of humans in white-collar roles, the rationale for hiring human workers becomes questionable. What will happen to employees currently in these roles, for whom companies incur costs such as pensions and other benefits?
This situation raises broader questions about whether AI will enhance efficiency and lead to better job opportunities, or whether traditional employees will bear the consequences of this transition to AI technology in the workplace.
Suleyman isn’t the only AI authority engaging in discussions about AI’s impact on employment. Bill Gates has also offered his perspective on which jobs might withstand AI advancements for now, specifically mentioning coders, energy specialists, and biologists.
Geoffrey Hinton, recognized as the ‘godfather of AI’ due to his pioneering research, has been vocal about the potential downsides of AI.
Hinton asserts that AI capabilities are effectively doubling every seven months, a trend he believes could lead to significant changes in workplaces soon.
He predicts that cognitive tasks, often considered ‘menial’ work, will be the first to be eliminated by AI. This includes job roles such as call center operators, customer service representatives, schedulers, and transcriptionists.
Following this, AI’s impact could extend to roles in journalism, marketing, and basic accounting.
Beyond that, the potential disruptions are virtually limitless.