Artificial Intelligence in The Workplace Essay Example

Introduction

For as long as humans exist, technology has been a great part of humans’ daily lives. It started from simple primitive hunting tools to everything that is now taken for granted such as the internet, smartphones, and TV. Most of the time, technology needs humans to make use of it. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a completely different thing. Artificial Intelligence, as its name suggests, has its own ‘intelligence’. What it means is that it can learn any information by itself, just like humans. This is what creates heaps of debates on whether AI will help humans or instead take over the world. Some people are afraid that jobs would be lost to it, while others think that it will benefit us. Either way, everyone should understand how AI works in order to make the right judgment.

While AI is constantly developed to mimic human intelligence, it is still far from that point. The intelligence should not be thought of as something linear, as there are many types of AI. The type that will be talked about in this essay is weak AI. According to ThinkAutomation, weak AI is a common type of AI that is designed to take care of one task. The goal of this AI is to mimic human behaviour rather than human intelligence. That means that it can not form thoughts like a human can, but it can generate solutions to problems that it has been programmed to do. Examples of weak AI are virtual assistances like Siri, Alexa, Cortana and automatic product recommendations. Mimicking human intelligence is the goal of strong AI, which has yet to be achieved.

This essay will discuss how the use of AI in workplaces impacts people and jobs. The fears of AI are first explored, followed by benefits of AI, which includes how AI transforms occupations and roles as well as needed skills.

1. The fears of AI

1.1. The rational fear

The probability of AI taking over human jobs is not low, making it reasonable to be worried about it. Considering most blue-collar jobs are already replaced by machines now, it is very likely that white-collar jobs are next. Even the jobs that usually need human interaction, like customer service, are starting to get replaced by AI. With its capability to learn from mistakes, AI can even work better and faster than humans. Until now, AI has already been implemented in many fields of jobs. It is only a matter of time for AI to take more jobs away.

1.2. The irrational fear

Movies about robots have been around since 2001. Typically, those movies depict robots as super-intelligent, so intelligent that they have consciousness and free will. A common storyline is about angry robot revolution. It has caused some anxiety for people who are oblivious to how AI works. As a result, when AI is discussed, some people are rather sceptical for fear of AI taking over the world.

2. Rebuttal to the fears

It is irrefutable that AI will take over some jobs, but the jobs that most AI is capable of doing are the ones that do not require many skills. AI is also inferior to humans in many aspects. For instance, AI still can’t replace psychiatrists. As AI can not form its own thought and therefore can not draw a conclusion when presented with unfamiliar situations, AI is unqualified to replace human psychiatrists. 

Although many jobs will be lost, more will be created by the use of AI. AI needs to be programmed in order to help humans. In the development, many kinds of jobs are needed. There are 3 roles that are needed for AI: trainers, explainers, and sustainers. Trainers teach and design AI systems to mimic human behaviour, explainers are like system analysts, the connector between technology and business, because they explain how the AI algorithm works, and sustainers supervise the work of AI systems.

3. Changes by AI

3.1. Reducing repetitive job duties

Since the easy and repetitive tasks will be replaced by AI, job duties will have to change to accommodate an efficient teamwork between humans and AI. Based on a survey on managers by Accenture, coordination and control tasks take up more than half of their time, which is unfortunate because those tasks can be easily done with the help of AI. If AI takes care of those duties for them, then the managers will have more time to do other tasks that actually requires human abilities that AI cannot replicate. Thus, the manager’s duties have been reduced in quantity and possibly increased in quality. 

3.2. Increasing productivity and performance

In healthcare, AI helps with administrative tasks, fetching health records, treatment plans and consultations. These repetitive tasks are processed faster by AI than humans. By giving these tasks to AI, healthcare workers can focus on the more important tasks, attend more patients and be more productive.  According to McKinsey Global Institute, productivity in nursing increases by 30-50% with the help of AI.

3.3. Lower risk in dangerous jobs

Not only can AI help humans, but it can also protect humans. In dangerous jobs like defusing bombs, humans are prone to make mistakes; it is not to say that AI can not make mistakes, but AI can not feel fear while humans can. Consequently, AI can protect thousands of lives by assisting in dangerous jobs.

4. Conclusion

The probability of jobs being lost to AI has created fear and anxiety for many people. This essay has explored the possibilities that could occur with the use of AI in jobs. It can be argued that AI has more positives than negatives. It is true that jobs will be lost, but not as many as imagined. In fact, AI can help create better jobs and increase productivity.