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The Obsession with AI
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or holidaying in the outback (of which we would be very jealous) you’ll know that all anyone is talking about at the moment is Chat GPT and how it can solve all our problems. There is something incredibly satisfying about asking it questions and getting a detailed response with all the information you need without having to trawl the internet. No more trawling, that job is now yours AI. In fact, 83 percent of companies are now including AI as a top priority in their business plans.
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With the ability to automate labour intensive processes, produce content and monitor data to identify patterns, AI can certainly take a huge chunk of work off our already cluttered desks.
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But at what point does it stop becoming a useful tool and start becoming a threat to the real life people sitting behind those desks, and their jobs and livelihoods? In particular, Gen Z are concerned about the effect of AI on their careers. In a recent survey by ZipRecruiter, 76% say they are worried about losing their jobs to ChatGPT. An interesting stat considering that the younger generations usually tend to be more comfortable with using new technologies than their older colleagues, and are adaptable enough to incorporate new approaches in their work.
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It would seem on the surface that things should be in favour of Gen Z at the moment, finding a job is much easier than it has been, wages have been growing at a strong pace, and hybrid working is now an accepted norm.
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But if you look deeper, Gen Z are more likely than millennials to hold larger amounts of student debt, thanks to the increase of fees in 2012. They had the impact of the 2020 pandemic as a disruption to their studies, and the current recession is creating a more competitive environment for entry level positions. 35% of entry-level jobs required at least three years of experience, according to a recent LinkedIn analysis.
To top it off the current managerial obsession with artificial intelligence is a definite threat to the ability for real people to launch a career. From the standpoint of business owners and CEO’s, It’s a lot cheaper for to buy a new tech tool than invest in hiring and training a real person. It’s no wonder CEOs and higher-ups are much more enthusiastic about integrating AI into the workplace than average employees are.
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With all of that said, the importance of AI and the ability to integrate it into our daily working lives can’t be overlooked. Humans can be enhanced and helped by AI, but replacing them altogether may be a shortsighted decision which may have a detrimental impact.
