Throughout the millennia, workers in jobs that involve many repetitive tasks have heard, at some point in their life, that their job could be given to a monkey; that era is soon upon us, and the monkey is artificial intelligence.
We are witnessing an explosion in the capability of AI freeing humans from mundane and repetitive tasks in virtually every sector.
Even though AI allows industrialists to enhance organizational productivity, agility, and experiences, many creative minds are worried that artificial intelligence could take their jobs.
We’ll set the records straight in this article, but let’s first understand what AI means.
What is artificial intelligence?
In science fiction, artificial intelligence is portrayed as robots with characteristics similar to that of humans. While this is true, AI refers to a field of science that aims to get computers to do tasks that would typically require human intelligence to execute.
In other words, AI can be applied in virtually every sector, encompassing many things such as self-driving cars, SIRI, autonomous weapons, IBM’s Watson, and Google’s search algorithms.
Common industries affected by AI.
Payroll / HR /accounting
AI is already taking over the Payroll / HR /accounting sector. We are seeing AI solutions being used to automate processes by merging many payroll and HR functions.
A typical example is using payroll software alongside a check stub maker to help employees get pay stubs showing all the calculations applied to their paycheck at the end of a pay period.
Banking
In the banking sector, AI robots are being used to audit financial transactions. This has helped prevent fraudulent activities and promote savings in terms of cost and time.
Food industry
AI robots are now changing the future of the food industry. In different parts of the world, we have read news about robots being used to implement social distancing and serve food or drinks in restaurants.
Construction
The construction industry is slowly but surely adopting AI technology to improve site security and facilitate the management of multi-year projects. For instance, robots are being used to help with tasks such as installing drywall, pouring concrete, or bricklaying. Drones have also become commonplace for surveying and taking overhead images of construction sites.
Retail sector
Forward-thinking retailers are now using AI to open outlets with no cashiers. Amazon, for instance, has already opened the first AI-enabled supermarket in the world, Amazon Go, that operates with no cashiers. While this technology is not widespread in the US, we expect other retailers to adopt this model to cut labor costs.
Automotive
Currently, artificial intelligence is being used in various stages of automotive manufacturing, such as design, production, post-production, and supply chain. Additionally, top-notch companies like Tesla are already manufacturing self-driving cars that use AI, and we expect other organizations in the automotive industry to join the bandwagon.
Why AI won’t eliminate human jobs
Unlike what is portrayed in popular science fiction, artificial intelligence technology today is still far from human-like intelligence.
The current AI is only good at performing narrow tasks in the context of a very particular data system, such as driving a car, performing internet searches, or facial recognition. However, human contextual awareness, insight, and creativity are necessary to ensure the effectiveness of a specific AI technology.
That means humans will continue to offer more value than what machines offer.
Rather than take our jobs, AI will create more potential employment opportunities as the technology develops even further. More people will be required to create all the possible types of algorithms and AI robots. Moreover, creative minds will have more opportunities to try new jobs that are currently non-existent.
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