Artificial Intelligence: Will It Kill Your Job or Let You Live The Dream?
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is hot topic these days. Along with robotics and automation, depending on who you listen to AI is either the most wonderful or most disastrous development in human history. Will AI take your job away? Will it free you from boring or dangerous tasks so you can enjoy life? Will it lead to World War III or a Star Trek like Utopia? Will you be struggling to put food on the table or living and playing on the beach all day? The stories in media paint a picture of one extreme or the other.
We are in the early stages of a technology-driven industrial revolution, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, that is both eliminating and creating jobs. What makes this time the start of an industrial revolution is more than a few technological advances. What we are seeing are not only new technologies but advances across a wide swath of industries from materials science to medicine, finance, and business. With time, all of these advances will begin to benefit and be used by each other to create new advances. Just like the need for blacksmiths and weavers were replaced in the First Industrial Revolution many of the jobs we see today will be replaced. Just like back then we don’t know which jobs will be replaced and which new ones will be created. Some people will often half-seriously joke that at least the robots will need to be maintained and repaired by people. Don’t count on it. And it’s not an answer for everyone anyhow. Don’t get caught up in the high-level hype.
You need to understand personally the changes that are happening now and that are coming in the future that impact not only your job directly, but your industry and the company you work for. These last points are particularly important to pay attention to, as industries, business models and companies are disrupted. Being an outstanding performer on the RMS Titanic does you no good.
Before you can prepare yourself for the changes, start by getting a high-level understanding of the changes coming from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, beyond AI, robots and automation. This will help you not only understand where risks to your career may come from but also identify opportunities for your future. What makes this the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a combination of broad technological advances, the convergence of these technologies, a transformation of energy sources and power, new business models and, of course, disruption.
