AI and the future of Work and Skills
Computers and technology are rapidly evolving. So what will advances in Artificial Intelligence mean for the future workplace? Will there be any jobs left for humans at all?
The good news is that human judgement will continue to be relevant across all sectors.
AI is already having a significant impact in diagnostic medicine, cyber security and recruitment. An AI can scan through job applications to filter out the best applicants before a human from HR even looks at a CV!
Eventually, all jobs that can be automated will be. So the human workforce of the future will need skills that AI doesn’t have.
Have a look at these skills for the future. Have we missed any?
AI only works because humans write the programs. The future will need people with the ability to understand computer science and write code.
No matter how well an AI can mimic a human, it doesn’t have empathy, understanding, emotion, cultural sensitivity, imagination or the ability to care.
A person with critical thinking skills can suggest innovative solutions and ideas, solve complex problems using reasoning and logic and evaluate arguments. AI may be able to deal with specific problems but will never beat a human when there’s a big picture to deal with.
As the AI takes away the smaller repetitive tasks, humans will need to deal with the higher level decisions, taking into consideration the broader picture, and the ethical considerations.
Despite advances in natural language processing, humans are still better at communicating with humans than AI are. Humans use body language, tone of voice and social queues combined with emotional reasoning, empathy and understanding in order to both get their message across and understand the message being communicated to them.
Activity
Thing 5 Assignment
Watch the videos above and read through the list of future skills. What would you add? What jobs might exist in the future which don’t exist now? What skills will be needed in future? Let us know over on the LinkedIn discussion.
Practical Applications
There are lots of ideas and resources in our AI@School Curriculum and Toolkit.