AI and the future of work
Zibi Paszkiewicz, Ph.D.
Director @ Coupang | Ops Excellence, Retail & Pricing
In early June, I was invited by one of the international schools in Singapore to share my thoughts on the business value of AI and its impact on the future of work. Overall, the objective was to provide a framework or structure to help students think through the career opportunities and challenges that AI may create for them. In particular, the idea was not to make definitive recommendations or be prescriptive about what specific skills or roles would make sense going forward. I don't think we can make such judgments now, but there is a wealth of good research on the topic that can help us think through this subject.
Slides below can be seen as extension to my previous presentation on Risk-Aware Innovation: Managing Generative AI Threats
Business value of AI based on the example of operations
AI is a change that impacts knowledge workers and facilitates the execution of business processes that are highly information-intensive. While the augmentation of roles using AI will be the most common scenario, some roles can be fully automated using AI technologies.
AI enables the scalability of operational processes as more work can be done with the same number of resources without any sacrifice in work quality or user experience. AI can enable innovation by reducing the tedious and repetitive work of knowledge workers. Finally, AI brings flexibility to people managing operational work. The assistance that AI can provide enables people to move more easily among different roles and tasks. The technology itself is also flexible in terms of capacity, as upscaling technology may be easier than hiring, upskilling, or retraining individuals.
Landscape of roles: augmentation or automation?
In general, we can categorize roles into those that can be:
From a Singaporean perspective, businesses are in the process of understanding how the landscape of their roles will change. According to PwC survey , the number of job openings for roles that are prone to be automated or augmented is growing, but the pace of this growth is slowing down.
Jobs of Tomorrow report focuses on the impact of large language models (LLMs) on the job market. While the topic of AI is broader than LLMs, the report still provides a good framework and initial insights related to the future of work. When considering their careers, students should focus on roles with increasing demand and a low level of automation risk from AI.
Landscape of skills
Similar framework to the one proposed in the Jobs of Tomorrow report can be used in the discussion about skills. The slide above provides my take on the changes in the landscape of skills but the list is for sure not-exhaustive.
Challenge for new job market entrants
领英推荐
The key challenge for new entrants to the job market is that a high level of automation and augmentation will impact many existing entry-level roles. This could either limit career opportunities or necessitate the acquisition of new skills that traditional methods of formal education may not provide. The way to minimize this risk is to pursue a broader education and develop a more diverse set of skills. Premature specialization can create difficulties in adapting to the changing job market.
Conclusions
Secondary and high school students are in a favorable position to observe changes in the job market and work to prepare themselves for new challenges. They are likely to be successful if they continue to monitor trends carefully, demonstrate adaptability, and embrace change. This situation is better than that of many people in the middle of their careers, who are now impacted by changes, as their flexibility and ability to adjust can be more limited.
Ultimately, disruption will give way to new roles, business models, and industries. However, the pace of change can exceed the pace at which people adjust. This will be the primary source of disruption.
Resources
Future of work
Business value
Resources relate to the topic discussed in the presentation
Ethics and AI Safety
AI risk management frameworks
We are working to build to build Curiosity Ventures , a non-profit organization with a focus to ensure that technology is developed, deployed, and governed in ways that maximize value and enable sustainable growth of people, communities and organizations. We believe that technology can help overcome many challenges and create new opportunities when compliant with clear principles. We subscribe to principle-based innovation and leadership.