AI May Be Coming for Your Job: What You Need to Do to Stop It

The thought of AI emerging to disrupt the order of things in the world has become torn on many people's flesh — especially for the working class.

Mere reasoning of what this new technology is capable of, and its relevance across several institutions and sectors, is already creating mixed feelings of excitement, shock, and fright.

According to a recent survey, about 69% of graduates are scared of AI taking over their jobs. It’s indeed fearful; looking at the number of years devoted to learning by the graduates.

The evolution of AI and its integration into various sectors for enhancement is becoming insufficient. Now, AI is considered to be on a journey of making people lose their jobs.

In a report presented by the World Economic Forum in 2020, there is a global economic threat that automation will displace over 85 million jobs in 5 years.

With the emergence of AI elements like ChatGPT, robots, and chatbots that automate tedious tasks and provide viable solutions, it's obvious that AI is truly capable of hijacking human jobs.

However, there are still many things to do before AI's irreversible takeover. One important thing to focus on is to outsource solutions on how to safeguard human jobs from being snatched by AI, or, discover viable ways humans can work side-by-side with the disrupting technology.

For you to locate the right step to take in securing your job, a clear understanding of what the new technology AI means is important.

What's the Phenomenon called AI?

AI can simply be described as the simulation of human intelligence into machines, enabling them to carry out tasks, solve problems, and provide accurate predictions and solutions for humans. AI functions via data processing and programming, which are embedded in them by humans.

Nowadays, the proliferation of AI makes it easy to be integrated into machines and devices used by humans. Modern devices like Smartphones with Siri  (iPhones) and Google Assistant (Android), Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), robots, chatbots, and recently, ChatGPT are examples of AI.

The Fears and Speculation About AI

There are several sectors, such as health, economy, business, education, agriculture, and architecture that have already incorporated AI into their activities. This is because AI can influence speed delivery, high level of productivity, and reduce the cost of operation.

The central idea is to maximize AI to enhance human efforts. But over time, AI has transformed, welding enough power to execute tasks with little, or no, human assistance. Which has now created fear and concern in many people.

The question many are asking is: will AI affect their job? If that should happen, what can be done to prevent unemployment?

Fields AI Is Expected to Have Total Dominance

It's imminent that some jobs will be hijacked by AI as we progress. A survey carried out by Tidio revealed that 45% of people are positive about AI taking over the economy completely.

Some of the career paths AI may significantly disrupt include cashiers, drivers, and also, translators. AI will also greatly impact fields like customer service, data entry, research, and other learnable tasks.

Fields AI Can't Totally Takeover

There are many other fields where AI is used to enhance activities, yet, the technology is still far behind in taking full control, leaving the workers of the fields with the hope of job retention.

Some of these fields include human touch fields (like Contractors, Plumbers, Electricians, and Interior & Exterior installers), Management Professionals, Lawyers, Writers, Teachers, and Medical Professionals.

The inability of AI to pose a threat to some of these vocations emerges from its weakness to understand complex strategic planning, harness empathy, show creativity, or perform tasks that demand hand-eye coordination.

Tasks like window installation demand careful hand-eye observation and execution; for writing, there is a need to reflect a level of creativity that conforms with feelings, emotional intelligence, and mood. These are qualities AI can't exhibit, leaving humans in full charge.

How to Beat AI Disruption

To keep your relevance as a worker in your field despite the emerging AI-led disruption is to be willing to go the extra mile. In 2017, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, said, "there certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us.”

According to the Twitter owner, robots (AI) will certainly take control as we progress.

But for you to remain relevant during job disruption as influenced by AI dominance, the following must become a priority: upskilling & reskilling.

Upskilling

Despite the impressive abilities of AI, the technology still suffers from a deficiency in many areas. Some of these include its inability to use empathy and conceive innovative ideas and its lack of creativity.

These are essential skills humans need to possess to be indispensable through AI-Inspired disruption.

According to the World Economic Forum report, by 2025, new professions for humans will demand analytical thinking, creativity, and flexibility as a skill set for recruitment. These are all qualities AI can't provide.

To function in the new era of AI, you have to be:

• Creative

• Learn about people management

• Have critical thinking and problem-solving skill

• And lastly, generate strong emotional intelligence.

Reskilling

Reskilling is another important thing to focus on to retain your job during AI disruption. The ability to move into the next big thing as the current situation demands will be needed.

The report from the World Economic Forum also states that the robot revolution will create up to 97 million new jobs with the support of the government and businesses during disruption.

This means, learning how to control AI and building knowledge on how to train and monitor AI to execute tasks perfectly will become a valuable skill set needed to retain your job in the future.

Conclusion

AI’s inevitable job disruption is why humans should focus on discovering areas that can be filled. The filling of the void AI will leave behind will become the new job of many people in years to come.

Technology will keep advancing to increase AI relevance. Currently, researchers are working hard in developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that would enable a machine to have human cognitive abilities to solve problems on its own.

However, the limitation is palpable: it's still impossible for AI to replace humans in all areas.