Artificial intelligence (AI) has established itself as a critical component of recent technology advances. It can be found all around us, automating routine chores and drastically enhancing our lives. It is a vast branch of computer science that focuses on creating intelligent computers capable of completing activities that would ordinarily need human intellect. The increasing usage of digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI), and other technological solutions indicates that humans’ position in the economy would decline drastically, resulting in the loss of millions of jobs. COVID-19 has accelerated this effect in 2020, and it is anticipated to accelerate and maybe permanently establish digitalization in some areas.
Technology-driven social upheavals, such as the ones we’re experiencing with AI and automation, are always cause for concern—and properly so. According to a two-year research conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, intelligent agents and robots might replace up to 30% of the world’s current human labour by 2030.
At a higher level, AI and automation will aid in the abolition of illness and poverty worldwide. AI is already advancing medicine and healthcare by increasing illness prevention, diagnosis accuracy, and treatment and cure efficacy. Identifying where aid is most needed is one of the most challenging tasks in reducing global poverty. This barrier can be solved by using artificial intelligence to analyse data from satellite images and efficiently target help. The most recent epidemic is the finest example of this.
While the world was experiencing an unprecedented crisis, the determination to adapt and overcome led to the discovery of a vaccine as well as the establishment of a new normal in terms of how we work, learn, connect, and communicate.
When it comes to the financial industry, technology has transformed how individuals trade freely and what they demand from them in terms of products and services. That’s why we’re changing into a bank built around a digitally focused offering, investing in resources to keep us ahead of the curve, so we can not only meet our clients’ present requirements, but also anticipate and prepare for their future ones.
As AI becomes more interwoven into our professions and daily lives, it has the potential to radically alter the way we live and work. This impending change has caused significant worry. A recent study of 5,700 Harvard Business School alumni found that 52 per cent believe the average firm would employ fewer people in three years.
The adoption of AI creates new and different issues for corporate executives. They must continue to provide financial returns while simultaneously aggressively spending in hiring, personnel training, and new technology to achieve productivity and growth. These seemingly opposing organisational goals may make leadership decisions difficult, if not agonising.
The stakes are rather high. AI is a whole new sort of technology that can predict future demands and provide recommendations to its users. That expertise has the ability to increase staff productivity by doing administrative tasks, offering better price recommendations to sellers, and accelerating recruiting, to name a few examples.
Rebalancing resources, investing in workforce reskilling, and, on a global scale, pushing new models of education and lifelong learning are three critical initiatives for corporate leaders managing the AI workforce shift.
As a result of this shift, business executives will need to reallocate money. The widespread use of AI may entail more research and development costs. Employee training and reskilling will almost probably need employee disengagement from revenue-generating tasks for a period of time.
The potential of AI will be realised via reskilling the workforce
To be at the forefront of talent development, countries and cities throughout the world must focus on reskilling their workforces to deal with the changing environment. They need to emphasise the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects and promote lifelong learning. Individuals and the workforce as a whole will require the necessary skills, and vocational training will be essential. Governments and companies will need to remove obstacles to existing workers becoming re-skilled and up-skilled. Empathy, creativity, inventiveness, and leadership, as well as fusion qualities essential for human-AI machine collaboration, will need to be developed.
To summarise, incorporating artificial intelligence into a company is a huge undertaking. It demands a great deal of information, a lot of time, and a commitment to accuracy. Furthermore, rather than concentrating on how AI can bring value to certain industries and identifying where it is truly needed, the AI revolution must be accompanied by a re-skilling revolution. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. They are intertwined inexorably. In order to properly benefit from these developments, we will need to embrace lifelong learning. Countries, cities, and organisations who recognise this and have already engaged in worker skill development will gain from the AI-driven economy.
(Ankit Shah is the Chief Operating Officer at EVM India)