By Vikrant Kaushal, Chief People Officer, Consortium Gifts
Artificial Intelligence is progressing at an unprecedented speed throughout the history of technological development. Contrary to previous industrial revolutions that were focused primarily on automation of manual operations, artificial intelligence is now increasingly capable of completing cognitive tasks previously thought of as exclusively human.
The discussion about artificial intelligence typically revolves around the displacement of jobs and its potential for causing disruptions in the workforce. However, apart from the problem of displacements, there is a more fundamental problem that has appeared. It is a crisis of human relevance in the workplace caused by the growing ability of machines to do what people can but much better and more cheaply.
Human Aspect of the Technological Revolution
This revolution is happening so quickly that human beings are having trouble coping with it. This is not an economic statistical change; this is a blow right at people’s self-respect and confidence in themselves and their abilities.
• The Transformation of Professional Jobs: While other technologies had the effect of changing labour on the factory floor or in the field, AI has entered the professional offices. Graphic designers, journalists, lawyers, and programmers watch their software perform tasks that they had spent years learning to do themselves.
• Disrupted Career Progression: Traditionally, companies hired graduates right after university to perform menial tasks such as data entry or research. “Grunt work” used to be a means for young professionals to get to know their industry. Today, AI performs all of these tasks easily. If the companies stop hiring new graduates, they will completely disqualify a generation from entering its career ladder.
• A Loss of Purpose: A job to a person is never purely economic; it is the place of dignity, community, and purpose. The feeling of being replaced by a machine is very demoralising.
We must shift our focus to redefining the essence of the value that a worker brings to their profession, since being a human encyclopedia or fast data processor can no longer be the benchmark of such value due to the emergence of AI. Our value must be in the aspects of being human that no machine can have.
What AI Cannot Replicate
1. Pure Empathy and Trust
Complete trust and understanding exist solely between people. In spheres like medicine, teaching, and management, people expect more than just the facts from one another. A computer program is unable to look into the worried eyes of a colleague or anxious customer and say, “I understand your fear, and I’ll help you through this.”
2. Decision Making based on Morality and Ethics
AI analyses the available data and does not distinguish between right and wrong. An AI system can come up with efficient cost-cutting solutions to increase profitability, but it will never know the pain that it causes when people in a small town lose their jobs.
3. Unpredictable creativity
Unlike humans, who generate new ideas, AI bases its creativity on previous knowledge. Creativity for AI means connecting existing pieces of information. Innovation is born not only from experience, but from our emotions and our ability to connect two distant things.
Creating Human-first Future
We do not have to be pushed away by the AI. On the contrary, we must adapt our practices and management of companies to ensure that people remain central to the workplace environment. The following are four concrete measures for ensuring this happens:
1. From “Creator” to “Director”
The point is not to race against the AI to finish your reports or process the data quicker; instead, you have to be a director now. An algorithm will create a first draft, but a human will have to proofread it and improve it by adding storytelling and making it sound like the company.
2. Embrace Interpersonal Skills Even More
Since algorithms cannot show emotions, human workers will have to rely more on their soft skills. This includes developing a great capacity for empathy, active listening, conflict resolution, and teamwork. Regardless of the occupation, it is always going to be difficult to substitute people who know how to build relations of trust with clients and co-workers.
3. Implement AI-Assisted Internships
In order to ensure that fresh talent does not get completely blocked out of the labour market, companies can reconsider their approach to education and internships. It does not mean that junior positions will go away because of AI; companies can use machines to automate routine processes while allowing junior employees to interact directly with their seniors.
4. Reward Ethical and Moral Leadership
Institutions need to empower those who consider something more than just the profitability and the pattern in the data when making decisions. Institutions should reward ethical leadership by choosing leaders who comprehend the human implications of a particular decision, for example, the consequences of technological changes on the employees’ welfare or the community’s goodwill.
Using Tech to Our Advantage
The possibility of humans becoming irrelevant to the point of feeling useless because of AI should not happen; this is something that can be avoided if business executives decide to use AI in such a way that their primary objective is reducing cost by eliminating employees.
However, when AI is seen as nothing but a means of production, just like the internet or electricity, the approach changes. Instead of focusing on how to eliminate jobs and people, the idea is to focus on helping people. The future is not only about AI or technology; the future belongs to the worker using AI to automate mundane tasks while concentrating on being human.