CareerZ Cast Guide: The Impact of AI in your Career

[CareerZ Cast audio version of this article]

AI and the Future of Work: Navigating Uncertainty

“What jobs will AI replace first?” This question has dominated conversations about the future of work. While some anxiety is justified, it is crucial to remember that technological advancement have historically created disruption, but also created new opportunities.

The rise of AI has sparked a wave of anxiety and uncertainty among workers. Will robots replace us all? In this article, we’ll explore the potential impact of AI on the job market (not really to answer to the question) and discuss how to navigate this evolving landscape were robots can plausibly be able to perform most human tasks in the next decades.

Ask the AI…

Google Gemini has a take on the answer to the question above.

Jobs that involve repetitive tasks, data entry, and predictable patterns are likely to be most affected by the emergence of AI. Here are some examples:

1. Data Entry Clerks: AI can quickly and accurately process large volumes of data, making human data entry less necessary.
2. Telemarketers: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle many customer service and sales interactions.
3. Truck Drivers (in certain situations): Self-driving trucks are already being developed and could eventually replace human drivers for long-haul routes.
4. Manufacturing Workers: Automation and robotics powered by AI are increasingly used in manufacturing, potentially leading to job displacement.
5. Proofreaders and Editors: AI language models can now generate high-quality text, potentially reducing the need for human proofreaders.

It’s important to note:

AI will also create new jobs: While some jobs may be displaced, AI will also create new roles in areas like AI development, data science, and AI ethics.
The impact will vary: The extent to which AI affects different jobs will vary depending on the specific tasks involved and the pace of technological advancement.

Google Gemini

Okay. That sounds reasonable. Jobs that involve repetitive tasks can be more easily automated and will disappear at some point. But that has been a long-standing unfulfilled prediction. The successive waves of technology application since the Industrial Revolution have created more, not less, repetitive work for humans.

An opinionated view of where AI will disrupt first.

“Making predictions is hard, particularly predictions about the future.”

I have been lucky to be at the epicenter of a few large societal disruptions triggered by past emerging technology. Here are a couple of lessons I learned.

• The Gartner Hype Cycle model says that the impact of technology follows a pattern of hype and disillusionment before productivity. The commercial Internet was going to change the world in 1994, then it was going to fade away into irrelevance in 2000, then it changed the world around ten years after the initial hype. The launch of ChatGPT-3 in early 2020 is arguably the “technology trigger” that gave birth to the AI/LLM hype cycle of the 2020’s. It won’t change the world “next year” (as pundits have predicted every year since). It will eventually change the world and re-shape the job market in more than a few and less than fifteen years from now.
• The impact of a technology is first felt, not where it is more logical, but in industries that are closer to the precursors of the said technology. Autonomous driving (not a repetitive task) is probably one of the most difficult use cases for AI to solve, but it is where a lot of the early AI efforts are going. LLM AI is ripe to replace proofreaders and paralegal staff reviewing and editing documents, but I bet software development (a significantly more difficult task to automate) will be affected first because people working on AI are personally close to the software development use case.

Preparing for the future

How should an early-career professional face the prospect of future job market disruptions by AI technology? AI will eventually change the jobs available, but our advice is that what you do until then does not change significantly.

In other words, don’t give up your dream of becoming a software developer, practicing law, or going to medical school because you heard someone say that AI will replace jobs in those areas. Technology will eliminate the need for some work and create need for new work. Nobody knows whether the net opportunities for human impact in each area is positive or negative.

• Embrace Learning – Develop AI literacy. People who understand and use AI will be more able to leverage it, apply it, and make sure it is used well and for the common good. Martin McLuhan wrote 60 years ago “Technology is an extension of man” and argued that any transformative technology will also re-shape the human mind and that resisting its effects is futile.
• Focus on Human-Centric Skills – Job descriptions might change and the need for humans to perform certain tasks will disappear, and we need to adjust. You might, for example, focus more on data architectures and less on mastering a specific programming language, but the need for software engineers will remain. An entry level job at a law firm might involve less redlining contracts than typically require today, but one should assume Law will continue to be relevant.
• Growth Mindset – Prioritize adaptability – Perhaps there will be a time when humans no longer need to work and that triggers major societal changes and challenges. This is another long-standing prediction – I first read that concept in a book by Domenico di Masi 40 years ago. Historically, humanity has been very creative finding new ways of “doing work”. At some point that prediction might come true, but worrying about it is not exactly the best way to prepare for it.

Conclusion

While AI presents challenges, it also offers immense opportunities. Most of the readers of this blog are pursuing knowledge-based careers (work that can be done in front of a computer), which are more vulnerable to replacement by AI than work that involve interactions with the physical world.

Don’t rush into big directional changes because you heard someone predicting the extinction of a career.

Follow-up Action

To identify the adjustments needed, you might want to talk to people who are further along in the career you intend to pursue. Use this article as a conversation piece, set an informational interview, and ask them what are the early effects of the adoption of AI they see or predict in their area and what are the adjustments (if any) they recommend.

Share this with a friends who might be at similar points as you are in their career.

About the author

Marcio is a technology veteran with over 35 year of experience in product development. He has witnessed firsthand the impact of earlier technological disruptions and provide career coaching to help individuals to navigate the changing landscape.