Introduction
A world without humans; a world without creative thinking; a world with total dependency on machines — a glimpse into the AI-driven future.
It’s quite hard to imagine, but not so hard to make it a reality. Yes, a world with total dependency on machines is a world we might look forward to. We have made each and every human task of ours quite convenient for ourselves. But what happens when the machine has our capability of thinking? Are we dependent on our basic thinking ability to AI?
Let’s find out by knowing what AI and machine learning are. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.
Machine learning is a subset of AI that focuses on training machines to learn from data and improve their performance.
AI and Automation
Evolution and Current State
Artificial intelligence has been growing exponentially nowadays. It has used in various sectors, such as
- health care and life science,
- banking and financial services,
- retail and hospitality,
- media and communication.
AI has already begun exploring our gadgets through facial IDs and voice assistants. Humans provide datasets so that AI can attain its full capacity to work on its own . Machine learning uses algorithms to improve experience and exposure to data. Moreover, there is a training data set from which new content is created.
These existing data pave the way for new data, which in turn leads to the innovation of new content. Generative Pertained Transformer (GPT) is evolving, and all the queries of a person are answered through ChatGPT. It is one of the AI models that excels at generating tasks. Nowadays, AI has incorporated into meta platforms such as Instagram, Google Gemini Search, Microsoft Copilot, and Apple Intelligence too. This demonstrates how AI has already become integrated into our daily lives across multiple platforms.
Benefits of Automation
AI automation has various positive effects on our daily work lives. It makes each and every task easier. From searching for specific content to explaining what the specific content does, it gives conversational answers, which makes us gain knowledge while at the same time giving up total dependency on the AI.
The benefits of AI automation include:
Increased efficiency:
AI has made all the repetitive tasks of humans much easier. From giving a chatbot a response to a customer on Flipkart to Swiggy, AI has made all these tasks automated, which gives less work to humans. Therefore, these small activities are now trained by AI, and many companies are implementing them.
Less training costs and less labor:
Even though AI has depleted employment in certain sectors, such as the customer success industry, from the company’s point of view, it has lessened the cost of labor and paved the way for newer job roles. The company has achieved cost savings and efficiency through AI.
24/7 Availability:
Unlike humans, AI is available anytime, any day. It does not have a certain limit to its function. This makes it time-saving and reduces the workload for employees. The AI chatbot answers all our functional needs and prepares documents for us with the instructions given. The scalability of using AI is far more convenient, as it can be used in any tool, mobile, laptop, etc.
Error reduction and decision-making:
AI can analyze the facts and make a proper decision, in spite of the emotional decisions that humans make. AI can give accurate decisions for the event involved. A machine does not make an error. AI is a simulation of human intelligence through machines, which in turn leads to a reduction in errors.
Enhance the business and growth of an organization:
AI can enhance business through predictions. The CRM(Customer Relationship Manager) tools, sales leads tool, and prediction of markets help the business make different choices in difficult situations. This makes their business grow exponentially, along with suggested innovations to make the whole process go smoothly.
Job Displacement
Affected Sectors
Customer success:
The customer success industry has replaced routine questions with AI bots. For example, Flipkart Help Desk, Swiggy Help Desk, Zomato Help Desk, and other e-commerce platforms have been using bots for the first few routine questions. By doing this, they have reduced the workload of employees. Automated calls are also in effect in order to confirm the orders placed by customers. The simpler queries are answered through bots, while the complex ones are routed to the employee for further configuration.
Automobile industry:
Self-driving cars are a concept that always fascinates us. The GPS tracker is used to identify the vehicle, and with the help of AI, people can use self-driving features in some dangerous roadway situations. The automatic crash notification on the iPhone — all these help in the practical application of AI and ML. The autopilot feature is available to customers with limitations. Tesla is one of the companies that offers autopilot features in vehicles.
Content creation:
AI can generate content that is accurate and convenient for readers to understand. It has already begun to flourish in today’s content industry. Grammar check tools such as Grammarly and QuillBot are some examples of how content correction and other grammar check features are available. In addition, one can derive an article by providing a topic and customized instructions through Chatgpt and Meta AI.
Biometrics and security:
AI has developed over the years by ensuring security through CCTV cameras on traffic signals, the identification of license plates, cyber threat identifications, and so on. Biometrics and facial recognition for safe locker vaults provide immense security at high-profile and government locations. AI has the ability to identify the user through the features registered in its log.
AI has made a huge impact not only in these industries but also in medical fields—for disease predictions, new formulas and chemical compounds analysis,fraud detection—in finance-related apps and scams, game development, the entertainment industry by producing music and VFX effects, educational platforms through virtual teaching assistants, and the software industry—through self-improvised codings and error detection in the developed codes.
Data and Impact
According to a recent article in the Times of India on June 6, 2024, the data driven by Layoff FYI Tracker cites that more than 98,000 employees have been laid off from 333 tech companies in the first quarter of 2024, which includes major companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Number of tech employees laid off from 2020 to 2024
The line chart derived from Statista shows the number of employees laid off from 2020 to 2024, which increased from 25,000 to 1,75,000, which is a huge rate of unemployment that has occurred.
Skills Gap
Definition and Skills in Demand
According to an article by Coursera, the skills gap describes the discrepancy between the skills a particular role requires and the skills employees have. You can gain the knowledge for the job role you seek from educational institutions and internships as a practical approach to training such skills.
AI has been dominant in the leading IT sector. With the smaller jobs getting less, the need for advanced tech jobs to create and modify these machine learning is increasing. The high demand for job roles such as data scientists and DevOps engineers is increasing day by day. These programming roles require lots of understanding for the employee to attain them. In this growing job market, experience in any job matters a lot.
Employees are being rejected due to a lack of experience and understanding about the role. In such job roles, every day is a learning process. And so the learning and experience in these roles are quite expensive nowadays. So if you are seeking these jobs, try to be an intern at a startup or any other MNC to gain a practical approach and thoroughly understand the process.
Challenges
The biggest challenge a person faces is not knowing when to begin or from where to begin. Try to look for more educational platforms that provide courses for these jobs, and at the same time, look for ways to get into an internship. By being an intern, you can learn everything through a practical approach and make as many mistakes as necessary to learn how this role works. The foundation of learning can begin any day.
- Try to make up some time—a minimum of 2 hours completely in a day—and challenge yourself with new tasks.
- If you cannot do it by yourself and self-learning is not a choice, ask for external guidance through internet educational platforms.
- There are always remote internships and courses available to help you learn about these roles. Try to upskill yourself when you gain an opportunity.
- Utilize the free time to gain knowledge and understand how the job market is in order to motivate yourself and focus more on your goal.
Remember, skills are developed over time; we are not born with them.
Future Outlook
Personal assistants:
AI is developing, and ChatGPT is one such example. ChatGPT helps in creating documents, answering queries, and providing suggestions. It adheres to the instructions provided by the user and fetches the results. Similarly, the launch of Apple Intelligence makes Siri even more advanced in answering our queries. It provides us with our own AI assistant. Samsung Ballie launch has also made a huge impact on the audience since a small, functional robotic ball was used as its own personal AI assistant.
Creativity:
With the use of AI, new music, suggestions for music, video effects and presentations are created. It not only provides insights into queries but also helps the entertainment industry. This may lead to newer versions of music and the optimization of entertainment content in the industry.
Healthcare:
We can use leading AI technology to cure many diseases. The new formulas and analysis of the diseases make it easier for the AI to create approaches for cures. It is considered as a major evolution in the healthcare industry, that makes the human lifespan longer.
Robotics:
The changes happening in the AI industry are quite fascinating. Sooner, we may have functional robots in this flourishing era. One such robot that is already making a huge response is the robot ‘Ameca’ in Dubai’s Museum of Future. It is a humanoid robot that can make interactions with humans. According to an article in Wikipedia on Ameca, it is primarily designed as a platform for further developing robotics technologies involving human-robot interaction. This innovative feature is a huge accomplishment.
With the development of such innovations, the employment of an economy becomes a big question. The prosperous future is the technological paradise that we are going to witness. But the latter part of our economic survival poses a question in the minds of many people.
Preparation for Change
With grooming technology, people must be subjective to change. We must be adaptable to the growing environment around us. As an individual in this blooming era, continuous learning is important. Try to look for ways to upskill yourself. Try to learn the newer technological trends arising on any platform. The knowledge of thirst and hunger to learn must always be prominent in oneself. As it depletes, our role in this fast-growing era might be stagnant.
The government and companies must take the necessary actions to acknowledge the economic situation. The government should provide the opportunities and changes needed to implement newer syllabuses. Layoffs are not be an option; instead, providing the necessary training to the employees is the solution. MNCs and other companies must provide equal opportunity and a probationary period for the employee to gain knowledge. They must offer courses within the organization to upskill the employees. They can create solutions for better employment options and skills development rather than removing the entire labor force due to a lack of skills.
Conclusion
We are now in the world of AI. It’s quite interesting, as well as daunting. But it is not a step away from the most advanced world to live in. The developments in space technology, AI biometrics advancements, healthcare, and life science are all events that make humanity proud. Employment and survival in this economy are kept in mind, and more opportunities should be provided to make the whole lot of employees work. This is a huge step for humanity, but at the same time, it’s still not known to many people in parts of the world. We have come a long way from letters to smart phones in the palm of our hands. Furthermore, people must follow upskilling and continuous learning for a better future. The opportunities to upskill oneself must be provided to create a better future.
References
https://www.coursera.org/enterprise/articles/what-is-skills-gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameca_(robot)
Written by Bhavya S