Blog: Will AI take away our jobs?
You must have been hidden under a rock to avoid the rise in conversations about AI and especially ChatGPT. So the big question in many people's minds… will AI take away our jobs?
My view is if you are adding real value to your job, don't worry about it. If anything, if you add AI into the mix, chances are what you are doing will be even better. But if you don't add anything personal, that little bit of you into your role, and it's become a series of tasks, then the answer is hell yes!
Either way, don't worry; chances are your job is already killing you, and what you actually need to do is quit the one you have and go and find that job where you can actually add personal value as well as develop your ChatGPT skills to work for you, not against you.
I'm saving you some therapy sessions with this advice. Thank me later.
So I've given you the answer early on, I hate clickbait. But if you want to learn more and hear about some practical examples of how some organisations use AI effectively...read on.
I've written this post as the result of an event I attended a couple of weeks ago. Hosts Sesame HR brought together tech and artificial intelligence experts in beautiful Valencia. It was super interesting, and I wanted to share what I learned and how their software (and others) can make our HR journeys easier.
There were lots of interesting conversations, but a few stood out. First up Javi Rayón from Sesame HR. In addition to a product overview, he gave an excellent example of AI in practice.
An employee wants some time off work. In the old way, they would have to send an email to get approval. In a new AI world, that same employee can now ask AI to write the email, and their manager can automatically approve as their AI knows who is in or out at the time.
The AI will send out-of-office messages, understanding tone and context. Personalised automation in action.
Broader than that - consider employee engagement, the ongoing interaction with employees to measure mood, culture, issues and suggested resolutions. With AI not only can the interaction be automated, but so can the analysis of responses and action plans to improve things.
These are the more operational aspects of AI. The technology is not perfect yet, but it will free up time for people to be more productive. This is the logical extension of AI - it's the safe stuff we like.
What about AI making decisions?
In March 2023, Italy became the first Western country to block ChatGPT. The Italian data protection authority, Garante, cited concerns over protecting personal data when making this decision. While it's only a temporary ban, it opens up an interesting debate about who or what owns responsibility for the output or action of an AI platform. Is it the creator, in this case, OpenAI, or the user?
Demonstrating that users can ignore boundaries, there was an immediate 400% surge in VPN downloads, so the people of Italy could see what the fuss was about.
Back at the event, we didn't get an answer. My take is that, ultimately, how AI is used must be user-led. If I drive my car into someone it is not the car manufacturer's liability. But that ability to make decisions changes everything, and I suspect we're in for a bigger conversation.
As with all technological advances, it's rarely the technology that is the issue, it's the awkward questions it asks about us as humans, our values, and our ethics. The data we feed AI platforms will define the outcomes and we have a collective responsibility to get it right.
To explore this further, I asked a question to the panel "Will AI have the right to vote and veto as we humans do today?"
Jose Luis Casal from Bookker is convinced that humans are still very much at the helm and should definitely remain in charge. But of course, it might be easy for him: his app manages meeting rooms in seconds, using AI at its heart.
Now a question. What about emotions?
Eric Quintana of Emocional has the answer: they are very important for effective integration in daily life. However, there are two key points. Emotions are a cultural thing: different cultures express joy or sadness differently. The second point that concerns me is that AI feeds on the information we give it and that can include our human biases. According to a recent experiment, an AI platform was asked to give adjectives for girls and boys based on information from local newspapers.
The adjectives used for boys were along the lines of: champion, strong, sporty.... However, the adjectives found for girls were rather offensive: crybaby, weak, ugly...
So my take on AI.
We have to be friends and learn to communicate with the machines. But we must also remember that we are human, and our values and prejudices are reflected in all our creations. I really believe we are at a tipping point and we will make decisions for someone else in the future based on what we teach AI platforms today.
Oh and recruiters… I asked if you were afraid of a bot taking your job.
Awkwardly it may have already happened, at least at a low level. I caught up with Antonio Corral from HR Bot factory who has designed an intuitive chatbot that, from the comfort of your mobile phone, starts a chat with candidates, evaluates them, and keeps in touch with them.
No more ghosting!
Getting along with machines and communicating with them is essential. Tomorrow, someone else will make decisions based on what we teach them. Rather than worrying about the future of technology, we should worry about the present of our personal values and ethics.
About
Esperanza has been part of the immersive team since 2021. She joined initially as a Talent Sourcer in one of the first corporate engagements immersive won before moving into a broader internal talent sourcing role. More recently, she has been developing relationships with potential clients across Europe, talking to organisations about how they can add capacity or capability to their talent attraction functions.
If you want to find out how Esperanza or the wider immersive team can support your hiring on a local, regional or global basis, click the link.