Innovation Also Effects The Way To Do Things, AI Will Impact The Future Of Work And Life

How will humans and AI work together in the future? AI, or artificial intelligence, seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. While I’ve been aware of this major trend in tech development for a while, I’ve noticed AI appearing more and more as one of the most in-demand areas of expertise for job seekers. I’m sure that for many of us, the term “AI” conjures up sci-fi fantasies or fear about robots taking over the world. The depictions of AI in the media have run the gamut, and while no one can predict exactly how it will evolve in the future, the current trends and developments paint a much different picture of how AI will become part of our lives. In reality, AI is already at work all around us, impacting everything from our search results, to our online dating prospects, to the way we shop. Data shows that the use of AI in many sectors of business has grown by 270% over the last four years. But what will AI mean for the future of work? As computers and technology have evolved, this has been one of the most pressing questions. As with many technological developments throughout history, the advancement of artificial intelligence has created fears that human workers will become obsolete. The reality is probably a lot less dire, but maybe even more complicated. What is AI? Before we do a deep dive on the ways in which AI will impact the future of work, it’s important to start simple: what is AI? A straightforward definition from Britannica states that artificial intelligence is “the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.” “AI” has become a catchall term to describe any advancements in computing, systems and technology in which computer programs can perform tasks or solve problems that require the kind of reason we associate with human intelligence, even learning from past processes. This ability to learn is a key component of AI. Algorithms, like the dreaded Facebook algorithm that replaced all our friends with sponsored content, are often associated with AI. But there is a key distinction. As software journalist Kaya Ismail writes, an algorithm is simply a “set of instructions,” a formula for processing data. AI takes this to another level, and can be made up of a set of algorithms that have the capacity to change and rewrite themselves in response to the data inputted, hence displaying “intelligence.” AI will probably not make human workers obsolete, at least not for a long time To put some of your fears to bed: the robots are probably not coming for your jobs, at least not yet. Given how artificial intelligence has been portrayed in the media, in particular in some of our favorite sci-fi movies, it’s clear that the advent of this technology has created fear that AI will one day make human beings obsolete in the workforce. After all, as technology has advanced, many tasks that were once executed by human hands have become automated. It’s only natural to fear that the leap toward creating intelligent computers could herald the beginning of the end of work as we know it. But, I don’t think there is any reason to be so fatalistic. A recent paper published by the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future entitled “Artificial Intelligence And The Future of Work,” looked closely at developments in AI and their relation to the world of work. The paper paints a more optimistic picture. Rather than promoting the obsolescence of human labor, the paper predicts that AI will continue to drive massive innovation that will fuel many existing industries and could have the potential to create many new sectors for growth, ultimately leading to the creation of more jobs. While AI has made major strides toward replicating the efficacy of human intelligence in executing certain tasks, there are still major limitations. In particular, AI programs are typically only capable of “specialized” intelligence, meaning they can solve only one problem, and execute only one task at a time. Often, they can be rigid, and unable to respond to any changes in input, or perform any “thinking” outside of their prescribed programming. Humans, however, possess “generalized intelligence,” with the kind of problem solving, abstract thinking and critical judgement that will continue to be important in business. Human judgement will be relevant, if not in every task, then certainly throughout every level across all sectors. There are many other factors that could limit runaway advancement in AI. AI often requires “learning” which can involve massive amounts of data, calling into question the availability of the right kind of data, and highlighting the need for categorization and issues of privacy and security around such data. There is also the limitation of computation and processing power. The cost of electricity alone to power one supercharged language model AI was estimated at $4.6 million. Another important limitation of note is that data can itself carry bias, and be reflective of societal inequities or the implicit biases of the designers who create and input the data. If there is bias in the data that is inputted into an AI, this bias is likely to carry over to the results generated by the AI. There has even been a bill introduced into Congress entitled the Algorithmic Accountability Act with the goal of forcing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the use of any new AI technology for the potential to perpetuate bias. Based on these factors and many others, the MIT CCI paper argues that we are a long way from reaching a point in which AI is comparable to human intelligence, and could theoretically replace human workers entirely. Provided there is investment at all levels, from education to the private sector and governmental organizations—anywhere that focuses on training and upskilling workers—AI has the potential to ultimately create more jobs, not less. The question should then become not “humans or computers” but “humans and computers” involved in complex systems that advance industry and prosperity. This paper is a fascinating read for anyone hoping to dive deeper into AI and the many potential directions in which it may lead. AI Is becoming standard in all businesses, not just in the world of tech A couple times recently, AI has come up in conversation with a client or an associate, and I’m noticing a fallacy in how people are thinking about it. There seems to be a sense for many that it is a phenomenon that is only likely to have big impacts in the tech world. In case you hadn’t noticed, the tech world is the world these days. Don’t ever forget when economist Paul Krugman said in 1998 that “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” You definitely don’t want to be behind the curve when it comes to AI. In fact, 90% of leading businesses already have ongoing investment in AI technologies. More than half of businesses that have implemented some manner of AI-driven technology report experiencing greater productivity. AI is likely to have a strong impact on certain sectors in particular: Medical: The potential benefits of utilizing AI in the field of medicine are already being explored. The medical industry has a robust amount of data, which can be utilized to create predictive models related to healthcare. Additionally, AI has shown to be more effective than physicians in certain diagnostic contexts. Automotive: We’re already seeing how AI is impacting the world of transportation and automobiles with the advent of autonomous vehicles and autonomous navigation. AI will also have a major impact on manufacturing, including within the automotive sector. Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity is front of mind for many business leaders, especially considering the spike in cybersecurity breaches throughout 2020. Attacks rose 600% during the pandemic as hackers capitalized on people working from home, on less secure technological systems and Wi-Fi networks. AI and machine learning will be critical tools in identifying and predicting threats in cybersecurity. AI will also be a crucial asset for security in the world of finance, given that it can process large amounts of data to predict and catch instances of fraud. E-Commerce: AI will play a pivotal role in e-commerce in the future, in every sector of the industry from user experience to marketing to fulfillment and distribution. We can expect that moving forward, AI will continue to drive e-commerce, including through the use of chat-bots, shopper personalization, image-based targeting advertising, and warehouse and inventory automation. AI can have a big impact on the job search If you are moving forward with the hope that a hiring manager may give you the benefit of the doubt on a small misstep within the application, you might be in for a rude awakening. AI already plays a major role in the hiring process, so much so that up to 75% of resumes are rejected by an automated applicant tracking system, or ATS, before they even reach a human being. In the past, recruiters have had to devote considerable time to poring over resumes to look for relevant candidates. Data from LinkedIn shows that recruiters can spend up to 23 hours looking over resumes for one successful hire. Increasingly, however, resume scanning is being done by AI-powered programs. In 2018, 67% of hiring managers stated that AI was making their jobs easier. Despite the increasing prevalence of automation and algorithms in the hiring process, many have been critical of the use of certain types of AI by hiring managers, based on the charge that it can perpetuate and ever create more bias in hiring. One particular example is illustrated by HireVue, a startup whose initial services included technology which aimed to use facial recognition software and psychology to determine the potential effectiveness of a candidate in a certain role. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that this software had the potential to perpetuate bias and prejudice. HireVue discontinued use of facial recognition software in early 2021, and now uses audio analysis and natural language processing. It’s clear that the use of certain types of AI in the hiring process will likely be controversial as new technology develops. However, if potential employers are using AI to process your application, there is no reason that you cannot be utilizing similar technology to your advantage. • Jobscan is an excellent resource that provides similar resume scanning to what would be used by a hiring manager. By comparing your resume to a job description, Jobscan will give you information on how to tweak your resume so that it is a good match for a certain position, with the goal of “beating” an application tracking system (ATS). • Jobseer is a browser add-on, and another great AI-based tool for those on the job market. Based on a scan of your resume, as well as keywords and skills related to your desired jobs, Jobseer will help match you with the job listings that best fit your experience. For each listing, you get a rating based on how well you are aligned with the particular posting, as well as recommendations of skills to add to better position your resume and experience. • Rezi: Now, as a disclaimer, I would never encourage you to turn your resume writing over to a bot. But Rezi is an awesome AI-based resume builder that includes templates to help you design a resume that is sure to check the boxes when it comes to applicant tracking systems. This is a great jumping off point to kickstart a new resume. Another great way to use this type of tool is to generate a new resume, and compare it to your current resume to see how it stacks up, and identify some areas for improvement. AI is also a great place to focus your energy if you are looking to upskill in your career, or make your professional profile more competitive in the job market, especially when you consider that AI will have such far-reaching impacts across many industries. AI and machine learning are at the top of many lists of the most important skills in today's job market. Jobs requesting AI or machine-learning skills are expected to increase by 71% in the next five years. If you’d like to expand your knowledge base in this arena, consider some of the great free online course offerings that focus on AI skills. If you are tech savvy, it would be wise to dive deep and learn as much as you can about interacting in the AI space. If your skills lie elsewhere, it is important to recognize that AI will have a big impact, and to the extent of your abilities, you should try to understand the fundamentals of how it functions in different sectors. AI is definitely here to stay, whether we like it or not. Personally, I don’t think we have anything to be afraid of. The best way to move forward is to be aware of and adapt to the new technology around us, AI included. This article was updated on April 16, 2021, to reflect changes in HireVue’s assessment tools. Ashley Stahl Follow I'm a career coach, international ... Read More • Editorial Standards • Print • Reprints & Permissions Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 5:33 Loaded: 11.90% ShareFullscreen LEADERSHIP The Future Of AI Is About To Get More Evenly Distributed Clint Boulton Brand Contributor Dell Technologies BRANDVOICE| Paid Program Jan 4, 2024,11:00am EST • • • The arrival of generative AI agents and innovation in ambient computing point to the next evolution in digital services. Emerging trends mark a sea change in the way people have engaged digitally over the last 15 years—and point to a promising future guided by AI. GETTY Picture this: You’re walking to a meeting in a strange city. Unsure of your whereabouts, you stop, extend your arm, palm facing you and ask your mobile device for directions. A laser display lights up your palm, tracing a route preview while a friendly voice guides you to your meeting on time. Seated in a restaurant later, you tell the device to display the menu on the wall and recommend the best option, based on a cross-reference on online reviews and your eating preferences. It suggests the filet mignon with truffle mashed potatoes, which your order by tapping the option highlighted on the wall. The next morning the voice from your device wakes you and runs down the list of work meetings, personal appointments and the less-than-ideal tidbit that your flight home has been canceled. Fortunately, your device has identified a few flight options for the next day. You settle on one and ask your device to extend your hotel stay; it does so and confirms the new flight reservation. This is Not As Far-fetched As It Sounds Sounds like science fiction, right? Perhaps, but this may reflect the new reality in the next few years. The world is moving toward personalized agents programmed to run on a new class of devices. Combined with spatial and ambient computing technologies that push digital tasks into the physical world, these chatbots will serve as our daily guides, gurus and even therapists. Beyond dishing out multimodal content to prompters, this new class of assistants will provide “AI experiences.” People will book hotels, order food and reserve travel by speaking directly with a chatbot, which will be customized or tailored to individuals. These agents will train as they work, learning our daily routines and preferences as they manage our personal and professional lives. As noted in the scenarios above—and by no less than tech visionary Bill Gates. Many of these virtual assistants will be powered by generative AI large language models (LLMs) or even small language models (SLMs), the fuel the powers ChatGPT, Google Bard, Microsoft CoPilot, Midjourney and other text and image creators. Already ChatGPT parent OpenAI is allowing people to create their own chatbots, in what could be an early Apple App Store for AI experiences, while Poe.com now offers people the opportunity to ground their bots with knowledge bases. Many of these experiences will be interconnected via millions of microservices and APIs. However theoretical today, such emerging trends mark a sea change in the way people have engaged digitally over the last 15 years—and point to a promising future guided by AI. The Future is Already Here, Sort Of In the pseudo sci-fi scenarios detailed above an unnamed device facilitated the bespoke AI experiences. That’s by design. It’s not necessarily a smartphone, although it could be. Or it may be something else. Or several different gadgets. The reality is we don’t yet know what these devices will be, but some interesting forms are emerging. Startup Humane is building a pin-like microdevice that you affix to your pocket and control with voice and hand gestures via a laser display projected on the palm of your hand. Rather than feature apps, it offers AI experiences. Rewind.ai and Tab meanwhile are building wearable AI assistants. Regardless of the forms, it’s clear that personalized agents and AI wearables mark the next evolution of digital services and congress. Smartphones may evolve into ambient devices as keystroke functionality cedes interface control to voice-controlled agents and laser projectors. What also remains to be seen is where and how these personalized agents with their attendant AI experiences run. As AI Serves Us, Multicloud Infrastructure Serves AI Today most of these AI experiences run in public clouds, the de facto platforms for emergent web services. However, on-premises datacenters will be the preferred host for bespoke AI experiences created by corporations that require greater control over privacy, security and data locality. Bringing AI to your data will provide peace of mind while showcasing your corporate stewardship. After all, we are already seeing great computing differentiation amid the rush to adopt GenAI. Eighty-two percent of organizations prefer running GenAI services on-premises or via a hybrid approach, according to a Dell survey.1 As AI models shrink, more of these AI experiences will run at the edge. Every device serving up ambient computing experiences will essentially be a node. In other words, these AI experiences will live on, in and between multicloud environments operating across a variety of locations. Perhaps, one day, these AIs will be turbocharged by quantum, or probabilistic computers. Of course, key pieces of this puzzle must fall into their proper places. Most GenAI models are large and require substantial computational capabilities and may not run on mobile devices without affecting user experience or device performance. GenAI players are working on that challenge. Also, the tapestry of API services is lousy with loose threads. You can search the web for food, tickets and almost anything indexed by Google with your voice but you must still book these services on your own. And finally, it’s not clear to what degree spatial or ambient computing solutions will function. For instance, will we be able to tap images or links to execute actions? Or will displays remain static? These are serious hurdles, requiring cutting-edge innovation. Future-proofing is Key If these looming possibilities and hurdles portend anything it’s that IT leaders must be ready to test and learn on new computing form factors and software experiences, as well as the potential for new displays overlaid atop the physical world. This means ensuring your IT department is equipped to support AI in all its forms and functions, bring AI to your data, and lean on trusted partners for help as you navigate this new world. If the future means we can better navigate the world around us using our voices and something that isn’t a glass screen, we should be ready for it. Are you ready for it? Learn about Dell Technologies and Intel work together to accelerate innovation. 1 Study Says Hiring Managers Expect (and Prefer) AI-Enhanced Resumes Chris Westfall Contributor In a powerful new survey conducted by Canva, a multi-purpose digital suite, and Sago, a quantitative research firm, nearly half of all job seekers today are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve their résumés. As reported in Yahoo news, the survey included 5,000 hiring managers and 5, 000 job seekers from the US, UK, India, Germany, Spain, France, Mexico and Brazil. According to the results, 45% of job seekers have used generative AI to build, update or improve their résumés. But the really surprising statistic? Hiring managers are encouraging the use of AI for the creation of job search documents. Not surprisingly, in 2023, Canva’s AI-powered Magic Write tool was used five million times. Grammarly has attracted 30 million users to its AI Resume Skills Generator. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Does HR Prefer AI-Generated Résumés? For hiring managers, 90% say that it’s acceptable to use generative AI in application materials. Nearly half (44%) say that it’s OK to use AI to create any content related to the interview process. And a majority of hiring managers (67%) believe that they can tell when they are reading an AI-modified résumé. But that last stat feels sort of like the number of people who feel that they are good drivers. Notice the difference: there’s how you feel about your driving, and there’s what I just experienced on the freeway. Perhaps our ability to spot AI is a little over-stated? PROMOTED At any rate, there’s a new résumé trend for 2024 emerging, and that’s the use of visual components. Nearly 60% of hiring managers prefer CVs (curriculum vitae, another way of saying résumé) with visual elements. In fact, 71% of respondents say that purely text-based résumés will be obsolete in five years. Why It’s a Good Idea to Use AI for Your Résumé and CV Amy Schultz, global head of talent acquisition at Canva, told FOX Business that candidates should feel reassured by this survey that they can continue to use AI as “a sort of great jumping off point.” We know that job seeking can be really hard, it can be really daunting, so if there’s something that can make you feel better about that experience, then I think that folks should lean into that,” she continued. On average, this survey says that recruiters spend an average of just 7.4 seconds scanning a résumé. That’s generous, according to reports from CNBC. Simon Taylor, a former recruiter at Disney, says the number is more like three to five seconds. “Five is generous,” says Taylor, the author of the upcoming leadership book, Build Smart.