Fierce debate: How AI skills could affect careers for 10 job functions

For Ayush Jangra, this year’s rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) is fantastic news, especially for product managers hoping to become more effective.?

Jangra is the CEO of Grabee, a data startup specializing in customer feedback. In a recent blog post, he championed the idea that AI’s data-rich powers can benefit every aspect of bringing new products to market – “from ideation to launch.”?

But don’t go looking for similar enthusiasm from healthcare leaders such as Kendrick Cato, a professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. He was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal article, arguing that AI tools shouldn’t replace clinical experts anytime soon. “There are lots of things that an algorithm can’t see in a clinical setting,” Cato declared.

Such schisms run deep these days. The latest edition of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey finds that 40% of U.S. professionals across all job functions believe that AI skills can help them get ahead in their careers. (Some 32% disagree, and most of the rest are neutral. Another 4% chose not to answer.)

As the chart above shows, enthusiasm about AI as a career-enhancement tool varies dramatically, depending on people’s job functions. Findings are based on surveys of 19,031 professionals in the U.S. between March 11 and June 2, 2023.

Sentiment is especially upbeat in the tech-related functions most likely to be developing or implementing the AI future themselves. Some 55% of professionals working in information technology expect AI skills to help their careers, as do 52% of professionals working in engineering roles.

Scan the tech sector’s job listings – or listen to what top tech executives are telling Wall Street analysts during quarterly earnings calls – and you’ll find plenty of eagerness to hire AI-skilled technical talent.?

At the other end of the spectrum, job functions such as community and social services (32%), administration (31%) and healthcare (25%) aren’t nearly as convinced that AI expertise will improve their career prospects.

Those doubts may reflect these professions’ deep-seated belief that excellence is an art, not a science. If so, the argument goes, data-powered AI techniques are likely to stumble when applied to areas where nuanced human interaction is critical.

Meanwhile, there’s a wide cluster of fields in the middle where professionals now face three interlocking questions. Will AI help me be more powerful and effective in my current role, by automating the tedious stuff? Alternatively, will powerful AI take over so much of my work that I’m not needed any more? And finally: if no one really knows yet, can the right AI skills help me enter the winner’s circle??

All of these dynamics are in play for marketers, a role where 56% think AI skills will help their careers. In a recent Wall Street Journal feature, reporter Patrick Coffee wrote that it’s likely “AI changes the nature of jobs in marketing.”?

There’s wide agreement that mastering AI could be the key to getting better insights about customers – and designing more effective ads. Will that translate into promotions and pay raises for the savviest human managers – or layoffs for lower-level employees doing tasks that can be automated? Both outcomes are possible.

Already, The Knot Worldwide, a wedding services site, has found that AI-generated email campaigns can outperform human efforts by as much as 20%.

A similar split may be in store for professionals working in real estate, where 51% believe AI skills will help their careers. AI’s immense capacities for predictive analytics could help property managers be smarter and more efficient in scheduling maintenance.?

For both residential and commercial brokers, AI tools already make it easier to create engaging listings and marketing material, as well as to help fine-tune pricing strategies. Once again, efficiencies could create exciting opportunities for those who stay – and job cuts for those who aren’t needed anymore.?

In fields such as operations (where 40% expect AI skills to help their careers) or sales (36%), there’s still plenty of guesswork about what AI’s eventual impact might be.?

New York Times staffer Sarah Kessler recently pointed out that alarmist predictions about AI’s potential to wipe out jobs have been circulating since at least 2013. So far, they haven’t shown much sign of coming true. Instead, the U.S. economy has added jobs pretty consistently.

As Kessler points out, “technology tends to automate tasks, not entire occupations.” That more modest role may help explain why U.S. professionals, on balance, are more intrigued than dismayed by the ways that AI skills could change their careers.

Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 3,000 to 5,000 U.S.-based members respond to each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we can get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyze data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data is weighted by engagement level to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and the overall market population are not accounted for.

Allison Lewis and Anat Zohar from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.