Why AI Is the Future of Work – And What You Can Do to Make Your Job AI-Proof

The last few years have seen a rapid trans­for­ma­tion in the world of work, with mul­ti­ple events trig­ger­ing unprece­dent­ed changes across all indus­tries. The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic forced a sud­den rise in remote work, lead­ing to a surge in demand for new tech­nolo­gies and ways of work­ing. Mean­while, the war in Ukraine and the pan­dem­ic have cre­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant uncer­tain­ty and sup­ply chain and labour mar­ket shortages.

Although some indus­tries are start­ing to recov­er, oth­ers have under­gone per­ma­nent changes. And more upheaval may be on the hori­zon. With the arrival of AI, the future of work is at a tip­ping point, with sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for busi­ness­es and work­ers alike.

The State of AI and Jobs Today — And Tomorrow

The influ­ence of AI and oth­er emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies is already being felt across numer­ous indus­tries. And the impact is only going to grow from here. Experts pre­dict that in the next five years, we’re going to see an unpar­al­leled shift in jobs.

Accord­ing to the World Eco­nom­ic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, the labour mar­ket is in for sig­nif­i­cant struc­tur­al change, with up to 23% of jobs fac­ing upheaval in the com­ing years. While many posi­tions are pre­dict­ed to decline sig­nif­i­cant­ly, entire­ly new roles will also emerge in response to AI and oth­er technologies.

The report, which focused on 45 major economies and encom­passed 673 work­ers, sug­gests that 69 mil­lion new jobs will emerge over the next five years. How­ev­er, this could be accom­pa­nied by the elim­i­na­tion of 83 mil­lion jobs, result­ing in a 14 mil­lion net decrease. That accounts for 2% of cur­rent employ­ment, rep­re­sent­ing a major shift in the labour market.

The report also notes that although AI may cre­ate 97 mil­lion new roles, these jobs will dif­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly from the ones AI is set to elim­i­nate over the next five years.

AI Is Set to Reshape Many Types of Jobs

Cur­rent­ly, the pri­ma­ry con­ver­sa­tion around AI cen­tres on the impact of large lan­guage mod­els (LLMs), such as ChatGPT‑4. While there are many oth­er types of AI tech­nol­o­gy, many believe LLMs will have the most sig­nif­i­cant and imme­di­ate impact on jobs across all industries.

It’s esti­mat­ed that up to 40% of work­ing hours across all indus­tries will be impact­ed by LLMs in the com­ing years. As language-related tasks account for 62% of total work time in the US, it’s clear that few roles will remain unaf­fect­ed by AI. That’s why it’s essen­tial for both orga­ni­za­tions and employ­ees to adapt quick­ly to avoid being left behind.

AI is already being imple­ment­ed in many basic repet­i­tive and mun­dane tasks, such as data entry and pro­cess­ing. How­ev­er, the imple­men­ta­tion of AI is expect­ed to accel­er­ate rapid­ly across indus­tries. So many employ­ees are now faced with the chal­lenge of devel­op­ing skills for the new jobs that AI will cre­ate before their cur­rent roles become obsolete.

Mak­ing AI Work Still Requires a Human Touch

While gen­er­a­tive AI pro­vides pow­er­ful tools, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber they are just that — tools. As such, they require care­ful appli­ca­tion by human experts, who have to pos­sess the skills and exper­tise to man­age the AI’s use. Achiev­ing the right bal­ance between AI and human work is vital to unlock­ing the full poten­tial of both.

Deploy­ing AI tools in a way that makes this pos­si­ble is a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge that requires effec­tive lead­er­ship and coor­di­na­tion across all sec­tors. Many orga­ni­za­tions are already shift­ing toward prepa­ra­tion for the future of work.

A recent sur­vey of com­pa­nies that have adopt­ed AI in at least one area showed that 33% had hired AI data sci­en­tists, while 30% had recruit­ed machine learn­ing engi­neers. These num­bers demon­strate a com­mit­ment to long-term devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion. In addi­tion to inte­grat­ing AI, com­pa­nies must have robust solu­tions in place to eval­u­ate and mea­sure progress towards their AI goals.

What Employ­ees Can Do to Devel­op AI-Proof Skillsets

For many orga­ni­za­tions, find­ing employ­ees with AI skills is a top pri­or­i­ty. In a recent sur­vey of lead­ing com­pa­nies, 53% report­ed active­ly seek­ing expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als with AI skills, while 34% are invest­ing in retrain­ing their exist­ing teams.

As AI con­tin­ues to reshape the job mar­ket, employ­ees should take proac­tive steps to AI-proof their jobs. One way to do this is by becom­ing a true sub­ject mat­ter expert in their field. By devel­op­ing deep exper­tise and knowl­edge, employ­ees can posi­tion them­selves as invalu­able assets to their orga­ni­za­tions, even in the face of new technologies.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in strate­gic process­es and dri­ving inno­va­tion are also key ways for employ­ees to future-proof their jobs. Tak­ing part in any oppor­tu­ni­ty to train and adapt your AI skills will help you get ahead and main­tain your role. As work­places become increas­ing­ly com­plex and new tech­nolo­gies are intro­duced, com­pa­nies need employ­ees who can help nav­i­gate these changes and pro­vide strate­gic insights. A focus on strat­e­gy is there­fore high­ly valu­able for employ­ees who want to remain rel­e­vant and indis­pens­able in the face of evolv­ing busi­ness demands.

Prepar­ing Your Orga­ni­za­tion for the Future of Work

AI is set to bring about a wide range of changes across all indus­tries, pre­sent­ing both chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness­es and employ­ees. Orga­ni­za­tions that take proac­tive steps to pre­pare for the future will be bet­ter posi­tioned to lever­age AI effec­tive­ly and gain a com­pet­i­tive edge.

Renoir pro­vides a wide range of ser­vices that can pre­pare your orga­ni­za­tion for the future. We can help you achieve dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion to ful­ly uti­lize AI and oth­er new tech­nolo­gies. Our data and ana­lyt­ics solu­tions empow­er your work­force to do more.

Talk with one of our con­sul­tants today to see how your orga­ni­za­tion can make AI an asset for your teams.