What are the effects of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs?

This is a report that I made as part of a research project for my Global Perspectives Exam.

In the 21st Century, Artificial Intelligence, commonly known as AI is making waves in all sectors of life. As this advanced computer science branch gains traction, the definition has also changed over the years and subsequently misconceptions have been developed. AI is an expansive segment of Computer Science that involves building machines that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. (BuiltIn, 2017) AI is the ability of the machine to perform such tasks and differs from the entire machine itself. (Copeland, 2021)

In the light of how artificial intelligence is being portrayed by the media, the impact of AI as an alternative labour source and its ensuing results on the labour market in the future are a growing concern. (McClelland, 2020) Fatalistic perspectives about AI destroying jobs are conflicted with evidence showing that AI could potentially create job opportunities in the future. Furthermore, with AI’s participation in the labour market, the demand for technological workers has increased which has caused a skills gap and lack of talent in the computer science workforce. This report will analyse and evaluate these issues with multiple perspectives and highlight the effects of AI on jobs.  

According to the European Union (EU), about 50% of the jobs worldwide can be potentially automated with the help of Artificial Intelligence. In addition, for about 60% of the occupations around the world, 30% of the constituent work done in these jobs can be automated as well. From another perspective, the EU believes that AI is increasing the demand for jobs that involve technological skills; meanwhile, the demand for jobs that require cognitive, physical and mechanical skills is plummeting. (European Union, n.d.) This automation trend is going to continue as shown by the Robot Density statistics in Europe. Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, France and more were among 22 countries that were classified with an “above-average” ratio of robots per 10,000 employee. (IFR, 2016) Furthermore, a report from multiple countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), shows that 14% of the jobs in these countries are automable. Moreover, the previous report of the same showed that 9% of the jobs in these countries are automable, with Austria and Germany at 12%. (OECD, 2016) This stark 5% jump shows that automation powered by new Artificial Intelligence technology is threatening the existence of jobs at an international level. 

From a national perspective, research conducted by a research organisation known as the Reform suggests that around 250,000 of jobs in the United Kingdom alone can be replaced by “chat bots”. (European Commission, n.d.) The authors of the research also found out that this paradigm change could save almost 5 billion pounds a year. The report also states that doctors and nurses will also be affected by this automation revolution since AI powered machines that can diagnose diseases and perform surgeries are making credible progress. The report concludes by saying this change will be dangerous to employment but increase the safety and efficiency of public services. (Gayle, 2017) 

Another aspect to consider is the role of AI travel agencies. Travel industries rely on AI-powered tools and solutions to assist or even complete processes like voyage planning, destination tracking and doing calculations to increase efficiency. AI is used in flight and hotel booking systems. These programs collect data from all over the internet including the user’s profiles using Artificially Intelligent social media trackers. The data is processed and the most favourable destination or hotel is recommended. Intelligent chatbots integrated in social media sites have replaced the travel agents that would once process this data with human intelligence. (Izchak, 2021) An expert in the field throws light upon how travel agents are almost redundant with the introduction of these Artificially Intelligent applications and bots. The article goes on to describe how these technologies are growing at an alarming rate and soon chatbots won’t have to follow a script and will be able to understand varying inputs. This means that 90% of travel agents jobs can be done by these chatbots. (Mekki, 2017) At a local level, an example of an artificially intelligent application is Pana from Denver, Colorado. The application is focused on corporate travel needs. Using artificially intelligent algorithms and live data, logistics regarding on-site interviews, speakers, customers, and guests are all handled by the app. The application provides a calculated itenary and details of the travel program for both business owners and customers. (Schroer, 2019)

Moving onto a conflicting point of view, it is also believed that Artificial Intelligence will create more job opportunities in the process of destroying them. The labour market may get displaced however another aspect to consider is that people can now upgrade their skills in the same or another industry. This transition in job skills to new jobs is called reskilling and therefore a consequence of AI on Jobs is a Skill Shift in the labour market. (McKinsey, 2018) In addition, artificial intelligence gives employees the freedom to follow careers that could give them better quality of life and mental-well being. (McClelland, 2020) 

According to a report published by the global level organisation McKinsey, the growing participation of Artificial Intelligence in the labour market will boost GDP and increase productivity in corporate worlds. The demand for technological skills is increasing and will continue to increase along with the demand for social and emotional skills. It is speculated that this trend can create over 20 to 50 million jobs at a global level. (Manyika et al., 2017) Artificial Intelligence requires people that understand the mechanisms, develop and adapt them. Therefore, the AI driven automation revolution will open more jobs like machine learning engineers, robotics engineers, data scientists and software engineers. (Manyika et al., 2017) This can already be seen in newer careers like AI Trainers, data scientists, 3d modellers, etc. For example, machine learning engineers are hired by companies like Uber and Google in the automated transportation sector creating more job opportunities. (Ascott, 2021)

Moving onto more job opportunities in other industries, a global educational technology organisation under the Indian Byju’s group called My Great Learning reveals how the healthcare industry has over a million job opportunities in the near future. With the increasing involvement of AI in the medical health field, AI-Assisted healthcare technicians are one of the many jobs with increasing demand. (Ascott, 2021) 

Lastly, diving deeper, job opportunities alone are not enough to save the labour market from Artificial Intelligence. The sudden influx in job opportunities demands for reskilling from the future workforce. If not, a skills gap will be created. From a national perspective, a new government scheme in the UK claims to support workers in finding new jobs or upskilling. The National Retraining Scheme will help adults across the country learn new skills and move into new promising career paths. This movement has been supported by TechUK, which is the leading body representing the tech industry in the UK. (BBC, 2019) 

Another issue to consider, is the lack of skilled technological workers caused by this sudden demand for technological experts. At a global level, the progress of AI is slowing down due to the shortage of workers with the necessary skills to work with AI. Some of these skills are deep learning, natural language processing and robotic process automation.

From an international perspective, a research conducted by a global business organisation known as Gartner, shows that businesses think that 64% of the introduction of new technologies is made difficult due to talent shortage. (Rimol, 2021)  IT companies that want to add new artificially intelligent tools to their system fail to do so due to the lack of suitable workers that can implement the new technology. Furthermore, the cost of finding talented technological workers is now more than the cost of implementing artificial intelligence in businesses.  (Leprince-Ringuet, 2021) 

From another perspective, another underlying problem of this skills gap, is that the shortage of talented workers is prevalent even in the foundations of IT infrastructure. This problem is a consequence of the sudden demand for digitally competent employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic. During the pandemic, businesses were forced to innovate old physical ways of working and most organisations turned their attention to computer programs. Businesses had to move to working virtually and therefore a need for software programs that can support a virtual workplace was created. This resulted in an increase in the demand for IT workers. 

A national perspective given by the research carried out by the IDC (International Data Corporation) and Salesforce highlights the digital skills gap in the United Kingdom. As the United Kingdom enters its post-pandemic phase, the research states that one in six UK workers have low and almost negligible digital skills. (Leprince-Ringuet, 2021) In addition, 9 in 10 UK workers must learn digital skills in order to meet job requirements. The research also suggests that an estimated price for this upskilling is 1.3 billion pounds a year. (techUK, 2021)

Another aspect to consider is the lack of practice for technological workers. A research conducted by Pluralsight, a technology workforce development company, found that remote employees lacked knowledge and practical skills in subjects like cloud computing, cybersecurity and data storage which are vital for understanding the structure of Artificial Intelligence. (Leprince-Ringuet, 2021a) 

The strengths of the sources used in this report are that most of the sources are published research and studies conducted by international or national level organisations. In addition, most of these are reputable organisations like the World Economic Forum, European Commision, International Federation of Robotics, techUK and McKinsey. Moving on to the weaknesses, some sources might have misused the definition of Artificial Intelligence, using it as an umbrella term for all kinds of technology. In addition, in regard to such an ever changing topic such as the labour market and the fast progress of Artificial Intelligence, some of the sources in the report can be considered outdated despite being not more than 4 years old. 

From the different perspectives and conflicting points of view in this report, we can identify the most significant consequences of Artificial Intelligence on jobs. Firstly, we can infer from the various perspectives that multiple industries will be impacted by the artificially intelligent automation and some jobs may even be replaced. Moving on, after evaluating the conflicting points of view we also learn that in the long term, artificial intelligence has the ability to create job opportunities in all fields primarily in machine learning, computer science and other information technology sectors. Moving onto the second issue, from the various perspectives, we can conclude that there is a lack of technological workers to suffice for the growing use of Artificial Intelligence. Various researches also tell us that these IT workers lack the skills to understand the foundational IT infrastructure. After analysing both these issues, a possible course of action to solve the overall issue is upskilling. Various perspectives strongly believe upskilling is a good course of action because it will reduce the negative effects of Artificial Intelligence in the labour market and prepare employees to survive the future workforce. Upskilling can be carried out by giving technologists and lower-level managers the hands-on experiences to upgrade and attain new skills. In addition, government schemes like the National Retraining Scheme in the United Kingdom can be implemented to help employees that are replaced by AI powered automation. Lastly, another possible course of action is to increase the quality of education and amount of resources in the technological field. This will allow produce more technological workers with adequate skills.

Conducting this research has enlightened me on the inevitable reality caused by the effects of Artificial Intelligence on the labour market. My personal perspective of Artificial Intelligence has changed and I have learned that there aren’t enough job opportunities nor skilled workers to match the growth of AI in the market and this causes a skill gap. As I reflect on this report, I have understood that in the long run, AI is beneficial for the labour market. However, the education system and morale of employees is necessary in upskilling and closing the looming skills gap. 


References

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BBC. (2019, July 17). UK workers who lose jobs to AI will be retrained. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49019390

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