Will AI affect my job? It is an issue that is echoed all over by the white-collar workers — in fact it is the fear of being obsolete (FDBO). The concern has some basis.
All knowledge workers will be affected. The omnibus term knowledge workers include administrative and managerial jobs, financial analysts, software developers, legal personnel and creative people. It is a massive upheaval and needs a back-up plan.
Knowledge workers constitute around 50 percent of the UK’s job market, and 70 jobs out of these 50 per cent could be affected or replaced by generative AI. Employees in the US making more than $2.5 lac a year constitute 50 per cent of the US consumption. You can imagine what happens when these high-net-worth individuals are affected.
Software engineering agent will be able to perform what a software engineer with several years of experience performs, that too without human supervision. Coding could be done by virtual co-workers. They could have problem-solving abilities of a mid-level engineer very soon.
AI agents can be deployed on a large scale. It means though there will be new jobs and augmentation of existing jobs on account of AI, it still would result into job losses. Already, there are signs of recession in MBA level jobs, stagnation in consultancy jobs, no jobs for the translators and lay-offs in the IT sector.
In finance, a prospectus before an IPO can be drafted by generative AI in minutes, which otherwise takes a six-member team two weeks to produce. Contract and temporary staff in banking could be curtailed while AI takes over their roles.
In the back-up plan, one must familiarize with AI tools to protect oneself. One must keep networking on LinkedIn in case one is not offered a lifeboat for another career. It is also necessary to be alive to entrepreneurial opportunities.
There is no guarantee that one will retain one’s job, but a back-up can keep FOBO at length.
Leave a Reply