Artificial intelligence’s evolution has changed employment opportunities, and the exponential advancement of technology will continue to change the business landscape.
Thanks to AI, tasks that were once extremely time-consuming can now be completed in minutes, fundamentally changing the skills needed to get into the workforce.
The efficiency of AI will make workers more specialized and less stuck in their set positions within a company. These developments will alter traditional roles and make workers more efficient with less mental stress. AI will exponentially streamline tasks that office employees typically need a few days to complete since its instant and AI is good at adapting.
AI continues to push companies to adapt, moving to a more flexible style of work rather than the typical nine to five. Companies running on flex workers are the future, and since COVID-19, more companies are open to having more employees work from home. Employees creating their own hours make life revolve around work a little less and often make workers better since they are within the confines of their own home.
Carlos Cons, a business professor at Mt. SAC, who also serves as the vice president of marketing at Datapage Inc., said AI is changing his day job. “Our productivity has gone up; it hasn’t dropped,” Cons said about Datapage. “We are moving towards a flex-based work culture.”
With the integration of AI mixed with other online resources, companies have fewer reasons to require their workers into a physical office. Ideally, most employees will make their own hours with technology helping them through the process.
Most employees are going to have to diversify their resume in order to get a job in the coming years. Likely employees will need to diversify their skillset before searching for a career. For those vying to work within the business sector, taking a couple classes revolving around AI and workflow can increase your chances of getting a job. This also includes computer classes or basic coding, which are skills that can help you use AI effectively.
AI is not only transforming how employees operate but creating a culture deeper than just ease of use. For example, analytics powered by AI can now figure out how productive employees are without the typical performance review that most HR professionals encourage within the workplace.
Unlike a supervisor, AI doesn’t pick favorites and is able to tell who is performing up to the company’s standards instantly, without a conversation. This helps the managerial process figure out what conversations need to be had faster without having to bother the employee that may need to improve in some ways.
Being able to track employees without direct conversation from a supervisor can cause anxiety when it comes to performance but it also decreases the need for direct supervision, which cuts costs for the company. Essentially this allows employees in managerial positions to focus on more pressing tasks rather than having to check up on employees
More employees focusing on productivity without having to dedicate as much time to grading other workers’ performance will likely increase productivity for the company as a whole.
The adoption of AI is also fostering vast amounts of collaboration across industries. With the innovations made to machine learning and predictive analytics, advertising has been made even easier.
Predictive analytics is able to figure out what kind of advertisement people engage most with and what is the most effective way to explain a product. This strategy can also be applied to individual performance and eventually, with enough innovation, be used to see how productive an employee can be on any given product. For example, businesses using AI for predictive analytics have reported a 20% increase in customer exposure and retention rates, according to a McKinsey study. This cuts the cost of hiring massive marketing firms. Both the marking firm and the company looking for advertisements can use AI to streamline the process and make it cheaper for both parties.
For some industries, such as tech developers and marketing firms, AI is an integration that streamlines the workflow, allowing the producers to take on more clients and make more money.
Like for those working in coding, ChatGPT, the most basic open-AI chatbot, can basically write code for you. This makes it easier to debug code without asking for help from other employees.
So far, the evidence shows that AI will cut costs in departments that usually need more attention to detail.
What does this mean for students?
Students looking for a career to delve into should be careful about jobs that may be swallowed up by AI. Jobs that will be impacted the most are those that take alot of human input to succeed, like data input and coding.
Some good advice for job seekers is to focus on industries that are growing and evolving with AI and other factors. Look into whatever industries are offering jobs and conduct research on what areas of that field are expected to thrive in the upcoming years.
Increasing individual tech-related skills will also help potential employees since the job market is going more and more into a tech-dominated field. This approach not only keeps job seekers competitive but also shows future employers that you are dedicated to educating themselves along with the changing landscape.
What that means for the workers?
The innovation will benefit most companies as a whole but for the worker trying to make a living it could make them underqualified if they fail to diversify their skill set. However, many companies are investing in training programs to help their employees understand the transition to an AI-dominated space. A 2023 report from PwC found that 74% of CEO’s plan to offer reskilling programs as the integration of AI grows. The best way to go about the integration of AI as an employee is to take time to educate yourself. The company that you are working for will most likely hire more instead of training other employees, since that is often cheaper. Basically, don’t allow yourself to fall behind or be intimidated by the future.
Since most tedious work will be extinguished within the next few years the more complex tasks will be delegated to the employees outside of the managerial field, which would require more qualifications for an entry level position.
This could potentially hurt already educated employees that may have trouble adapting to the new landscape. Although, in the long run with enough self- and on-the-job training AI will benefit companies as a whole.
