Will AI take your job? This is the wrong question to ask.

There are two types of people in this world, those who love Marmite and those who hate it. It’s an acquired taste but if you like it, it’s hard not to want to smother it on everything.

AI is the 21st-century technological equivalent of Marmite. While some people are embracing the power of automation, others are burying their heads hoping it will go away. AI is here to stay and its abilities are growing at a rapid pace.

In 2018, ‘Trevor’ the robot was brought into the credit control team at Rentokil Initial UK. Unlike regular employees, Trevor didn't work 9-5. Trevor worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, never made a mistake, didn’t take annual leave and couldn’t call in sick.

At the time, I was working as a HR Coordinator for the company and the initial idea of Trevor and how he would take employees’ jobs terrified me. No redundancies were made due to Trevor. In fact a new robotics team was created seeing several employees upskilled and promoted. Whilst others were simply grateful Trevor had taken ownership of the mundane tasks they didn’t enjoy doing.

Fast forward to today, most companies are utilising some form of AI in their business, from customer service chatbots, call screening services, analytical reporting, and marketing. If a company can save costs and get the same or better results by using AI, they would be silly not to do it.

But what does that mean for you? The person once responsible for these tasks.

What does the future look like?

Being exposed to Trevor so early on and seeing the positive impact it had on the organisation and employees, altered the way I approached my roles within HR. I became obsessed with automating processes so my teams didn’t have so much manual work to do. Getting hours back in the diary each week freed them up to learn new skills and focus on tasks they enjoy and ones that brought the most value to our customers.

In a recent Forbes article, Bernard Marr wrote about the two potential futures for employees:

"In the other, those whose roles are displaced by AI find it difficult to transition into the more rewarding roles, ultimately becoming unemployed or underemployed. This could exacerbate existing inequalities, strain social support systems, and disrupt society in many unpleasant ways. In the other, those whose roles are displaced by AI find it difficult to transition into the more rewarding roles, ultimately becoming unemployed or underemployed. This could exacerbate existing inequalities, strain social support systems, and disrupt society in many unpleasant ways."

Future A sounds great! Future B… not so much.

Should you be worried?

52% of the global workforce is actively looking for jobs right now according to the latest Gallup survey. Employee dissatisfaction and a lack of engagement are at an all-time high. 22% of employees say they fear there is a risk AI will take their job, but there are other influencers playing a part in that 52%. There has been a huge paradigm shift in the last 4 years since the pandemic and the rise of social media.

2020 shifted people’s perspectives on life and work. The lockdowns forced everyone to slow right down and reassess what is important in life. More people are now looking to stop trading their time for money. This can be seen in remote working as employees no longer have to waste hours of personal time commuting. We have also seen a big shift in how the knowledge economy works, seeing business owners focusing more on creating passive income and MRR streams.

Social media has opened up our eyes to what is possible, and as more people see others living and working more flexibly, naturally others also want a piece of that pie. You only need to listen to a few episodes of the Diary of a CEO podcast to get riled up and think you can quit your 9-5 and start a business.

So should you be worried about AI taking your job? I think the better question is:

Do you want to be doing your same job in 5-10 years’ time?

Preparing for the future

Whether you are concerned at present about AI or not, it’s time to take a big spoonful of Marmite and get those taste buds tingling. Your employability in the future will be heavily dependent on two things:

• Your understanding and usage of AI - It’s time to upskill yourself and be in the know. As businesses and roles evolve to incorporate AI, those who are familiar with it and can work alongside the ‘Trevors’ will stand a better chance at remaining employed.
• Honing your human skills - There are things AI can’t do. It doesn’t have emotional intelligence, it can’t complex problem solve, it can’t show empathy, it doesn’t have intuitive abilities, it’s not creative, and it cannot communicate effectively. These are just some of the key skills you could focus on developing.

Finding a future role you want to do

I am not an expert when it comes to AI, I just love it as I do Marmite. What I am good at and known for is helping people change careers.

Too often I see unhappy professionals getting stuck in a perpetual cycle of job hopping and job dissatisfaction because they don’t stop to address the real issues.

For a large proportion of my clients, the issue is they are no longer aligned with their current career path because their circumstances have changed and so has their outlook on life (Hello 52% of the global workforce).

Before you decide to make a career change, I invite you to try this short exercise to see if you’re going in the right direction or not. I call this the Career Design Pyramid.

How it works

Get a piece of paper (and it has to be paper, no laptops or iPhone notes allowed).

Write down the answer to the question ‘Who do I want to be’ and think about:

• The type of lifestyle you want to live: Are you happy, healthy, active, committed to family, a positive thinker, upbeat?
• The type of professional you want to be: Are you someone who is helpful to others, who leads and influences, a problem solver?
• The type of impact you want to have on the world: What is your purpose, what will motivate you to get out of bed in the morning?

Then, ‘What do I want to do?’

• What are your non-negotiables: The rules in your life that you won’t let break because they are crucial to your happiness and helping you be the person you want to be - your habits and routines.

Finally, ‘What do I want to have?’

• What type of career do you want: What is going to allow you to do what you want to do and be who you want to be?

If these answers do not accurately describe your life and career at present then it’s time to get serious about discovering and pursuing a new career move.