AI and its Effect on Jobs
- 25 Apr 2024
- 16 Minutes to read
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AI and its Effect on Jobs
- Updated on 25 Apr 2024
- 16 Minutes to read
- DarkLight
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There is no clear answer yet on the effects of AI and jobs, as it is ever-changing.
This article is an ongoing cumulation of opinions and articles about this subject. We hope you find it useful.
Many articles had prompt engineering in high demand and paying high salaries. One article back in March 2023, showed a salary in the $300,000 range being offered. However, according to ZipRecruiter, “as of Nov 29, 2023, the average annual pay for a Prompt Engineering in the United States is $62,977 a year or $30.28 an hour. And recent articles show the demand diminishing and being only short-term.
Prompt engineers write input data, often a block of text, that can produce a desired result from generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT. And for a brief moment, it looked like the next trendy tech job amid the boom of artificial-intelligence chatbots. Business Insider
Another job reported to be in high demand is AI content editors. However, The pay rate posted was $20.00 to $40.00 an hour.
“These are typically posted by employers who think these jobs require simple skills and little effort. But that is blatantly untrue. Depending on the complexity of the subject matter, it can actually take humans longer and exert more effort to edit and fact-check GenAI outputs than it does to write the thing from scratch.” Information Week
Data Scientists and experts in data management are the one area that doesn’t seem to be decreasing in demand.
“A critical, in-demand area is "skilled workers who can analyze data and train LLMs," says Lee. "As more technical tasks are automated, the demand for human oversight in training data will be extremely relevant to ensure the technology can continue to complete complex tasks." Information Week
The one area that I found interesting was Human Resources. I haven’t read much about AI’s effect on Human resources. Many companies already use (or try to use) software that helps filter out candidates from resumes. A recent article from The Guardian tells the story of a person not being interviewed by a real person. Another article from The Wall Street Journal talks about a case study where AI was used to resolve a conflict between a manager and an employee.
Can you imagine if HR was totally run by an AI? It looks like the Human Resources department may need a name change.
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“A survey from Resume Builder released last summer found that by 2024, four in 10 companies would use AI to “talk with” candidates in interviews. Of those companies, 15% said hiring decisions would be made with no input from a human at all.” The Guardian
I hope you find these sources helpful and will visit us again for updates.
April, 2024
ZDNet - Do employers want AI skills or AI-enhanced skills? That could depend on you
"People in this field must be comfortable using Copilot to code faster and more efficiently, Looking ahead, there are other tools coming out that will allow a solutions architect to describe a problem -- or even an idea for how to solve a problem -- to an AI platform, and it will produce an elastically scalable and implementable diagram."
This platform allows companies to hire "avatars" - real people in various locations around the world, ready to perform tasks remotely through their smartphone cameras. This concept mirrors the Uber model, where anyone with the app can become a driver.
Information Week - Dispelling the Myth of Job Displacement: AI and Transformation
In my role, I can learn from and talk to many customers about how to reframe the AI narrative in their respective workplaces. I encourage them to start by positioning the “A” in AI as augmentation rather than artificial -- meaning that there’s always a human in the loop, as people generate better outcomes. This view strikes a chord with the greater workforce because it shows the value of the worker, and it also helps people realize that every job can be disaggregated into bundles of tasks. Some tasks are more suited for enhancing with AI while others are suited for eliminating or handing over.
ZDNet - Tech giants hatch a plan for AI job losses: Reskill 95 million in 10 years
Of course, many of those cuts are driven by the AI innovations that ICT participants developed. And while consortium members acknowledged that lost jobs are a reality -- and that many jobs will be replaced entirely by AI -- they're hoping that upskilling and reskilling support will help workers find new careers in other roles.
Computerworld - Is AI driving tech layoffs?
I’ve been working with genAI for a while now. I’ve used all the major platforms and none of them — none —- are ready to replace anyone’s work yet. They’re great at half-assing jobs, some can be useful aids for productive work, but taking someone’s place? I think not.
Diginomica - HR, meet AI - everything changes...perhaps
The study pointed out that HR could most benefit from the technology in three key areas: recruitment, learning and development, and talent management. It also revealed that nearly 25% of organizations have already introduced generative AI for hiring purposes, making it the top area for adoption to date. A further 30% also plan to implement it in the next 24 months.
Forbes - The Future Of Human Resources In The Era Of Artificial Intelligence
To thrive in this new era as an HR professional, you must cultivate a deep understanding of AI's capabilities and limitations. Seek opportunities for education and training in AI and data analytics, network with AI experts, attend industry conferences and participate in relevant forums. This can provide you with valuable insights and inspiration.
March, 2024
ZDNet - This year's top 8 use cases for AI, and what tech professionals need to support them
Organizations need people with the skills to design, build, deploy, secure, and maintain such applicators -- and 46% of respondents say they need more of these people. That demand includes software developers with AI expertise (44%), machine-learning engineers (42%), data analysts (41%), data engineers (41%), and data governance and security specialists (40%).
The Wall Street Journal - The Fight for AI Talent: Pay Million-Dollar Packages and Buy Whole Teams
Databricks, a data storage and management startup, doesn’t have a problem finding software engineers. But when it comes to candidates who have trained large language models, or LLMs, from scratch or can help solve vexing problems in AI, such as hallucinations, Rao says there might be only a couple of hundred people out there who are qualified.
Computerworld - Most in-demand skills for 2024 — hint, genAI is at the top
“The decreasing shelf life of technical skills, and emergence of ... genAI, has resulted in many technology professionals who are currently navigating the job market needing to further invest in continuous upskilling, not only to land their next role, but to remain competitive in the years to come.”
sdxCentral - AI leadership and engineering jobs rising fast
“Your data infrastructure can make or break any investment in this technology, and it’s a struggle business leaders are quickly realizing,” the ZoomInfo report states. “Mismanaged databases, a CRM riddled with holes, or outdated information feeding your algorithms can result in costly, irreparable damage that’s extremely tricky to not only catch, but fix.”
Computerworld - Q&A: Udemy online education exec on tech layoffs and skills needs
Udemy just launched a GenAI Skills Pack aimed at providing professionals across software engineering, data science, sales, marketing, finance, and HR with dedicated learning paths so they can upskill on genAI content specific to their job duties for immediate impact.
VentureBeat - Accenture’s $1 billion LearnVantage platform tackles the growing AI skills gap
As demand for generative AI skills skyrockets, with 94% of workers wanting to learn but only 5% of companies providing training at scale, Accenture LearnVantage is well-positioned to help clients meet this challenge. “We are experiencing tremendous interest from senior leaders especially who want to be educated on GenAI capabilities so as to make appropriate decisions for GenAI applications and fund appropriate programs,” Durg noted.
Instead of resorting to conflictual relationships, labor unions in the US must work with employers to support firm automation while simultaneously advocating for worker skill development, creating a competitive business enterprise built on strong worker representation similar to that found in Germany.
And how quickly we adopt technologies in the workplace is going to impact the disruption to the workers that exist. There are, of course, solutions, and as academics, we're always working to the future. We don't educate people for today. We educate people for four years, six years, ten years hence, so that they're prepared for the world as it becomes.
Computerworld - The future of work looks like sci-fi
The Augmented Connected Workforce (ACWF) is a concept or a paradigm where advanced technologies are used to give employees what essentially amount to super powers. Specifically, the idea envisions integrating workers with Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, AI tools of every description, wearable sensors, wearable communication tools, IoT, robots, exoskeletons, machine vision and cloud computing.
Computerworld - AI to create a half billion new jobs — here’s why
Mark Kashef, an AI consultant and prompt engineer on Fiverr, an online freelance marketplace, believes genAI will create jobs that today can’t even be imagined. Areas such as AI development, data analysis, and AI ethics are all fields likely to see a boom because of genAI adoption.
Melbourne recruitment startup Sapia.ai has launched a generative AI model it’s called SAIGE to give candidate feedback. It uses the platform’s large language model (LLM) capabilities developed over six years, to evaluate candidates using a blind chat interview, then deliver comprehensive scoring along with a set of job-related competencies, including explanations for its assessments, with the ability coach candidates as to how they can improve, or say what it was looking for to give a higher score for a particular skill or trait.
AiThority - CareerBuilder Unveils AI Hiring Trends Whitepaper
“AI in hiring is now mainstream and here to stay,” said Kelley. “Employers should consider adopting AI technology to stay competitive. They should also start formalizing AI policies and guidelines, find ways to balance AI with human interaction, and think through roles so that human team members are delivering the most impact.”
IEEE Spectrum - AI Prompt Engineering Is Dead
However, new research suggests that prompt engineering is best done by the model itself, and not by a human engineer. This has cast doubt on prompt engineering’s future—and increased suspicions that a fair portion of prompt-engineering jobs may be a passing fad, at least as the field is currently imagined.
These studies are not only often contradictory but also generally based on observations of small sets of carefully chosen workers in specific situations. They may tell you AI helps call center workers be more productive, or is causing one company to hire less customer service reps. But it seemed dangerous to draw wider conclusions on such an important subject from limited data.
TechBullion - The Future of Work: How Artificial Intelligence Training is Reshaping Industries
Contrary to the fear of job displacement, AI training is designed to augment human capabilities rather than replace them. The synergy between human expertise and AI proficiency creates a powerful combination, where AI handles mundane tasks, freeing up human workers to focus on higher-order thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. This collaborative approach enhances productivity and overall job satisfaction.
CNBC - IBM is slashing jobs in marketing and communications
“I think that’s a fair criticism, that we were slow to monetize and slow to make really consumable the learnings from Watson winning Jeopardy,” Krishna told CNBC in December. “The mistake we made was that I think we went after very big, monolithic answers, which the world was not ready to absorb.”
The Wall Street Journal - AI Is Taking On New Work. But Change Will Be Hard—and Expensive.
Companies are turning to generative AI for ever more sophisticated tasks—including work such as deciphering friction between colleagues at Cisco, once exclusively the domain of well-paid knowledge workers. This change is fueling predictions of workplace transformation—both ominous and optimistic.
The Guardian - The job applicants shut out by AI: ‘The interviewer sounded like Siri’
A survey from Resume Builder released last summer found that by 2024, four in 10 companies would use AI to “talk with” candidates in interviews. Of those companies, 15% said hiring decisions would be made with no input from a human at all.
ZDNet - Workers with AI skills can expect higher salaries - depending on their role
Employers also are willing to fork out 39% more to hire AI-skilled workers in sales and marketing as well as in business operations, while they will pay 37% more for those in finance.
Business Insider - AI may kill the one job everyone thought it would create
Prompt engineers write input data, often a block of text, that can produce a desired result from generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT. And for a brief moment, it looked like the next trendy tech job amid the boom of artificial-intelligence chatbots
Geekwire - AI’s trust problem: Richard Edelman on the risk from the tech industry’s rapid rollouts
But if we rush this, if we put it out in a way where government isn’t seen as being able to regulate because it can’t keep up, or if it’s seen as done without context where there’s reskilling or upskilling to take care of people whose jobs are going to end, then we’re going to have a populist reaction.
February 2024
ZdNet - Beyond programming: AI spawns a new generation of job roles
These kinds of adverts -- for job roles that were unheard of even a year ago -- are likely to become the norm in the AI era. While everyone in business wants to make the most of AI, it's going to take more than development or data science skills to make the most of emerging technology. There's a raft of responsibilities that are essential to AI efforts, from training algorithms to overseeing ethics.
Computerworld - The highest-paid IT skills — and why you need them on your resume
Job seekers need to keep up with the tech industry's new demands, which include changes stemming from the widespread adoption of genAI tools over the past year. While genAI will touch virtually every industry, tech will be affected the most.
Computerworld - Tech spending shifts to meet AI demand, forces a 'reshuffling of skills' for workers
“Layoff will continue as more ‘routine’ IT jobs are eliminated,” Janulaitis said. The first to go are help and service desks as AI eliminates those positions. Next, entry-level programmers will be eliminated as AI applications generate code, he said.
Yahoo!Finance - Humans Still Cheaper Than AI in Vast Majority of Jobs, MIT Finds
In one of the first in-depth probes of the viability of AI displacing labor, researchers modeled the cost attractiveness of automating various tasks in the US, concentrating on jobs where computer vision was employed — for instance, teachers and property appraisers. They found only 23% of workers, measured in terms of dollar wages, could be effectively supplanted. In other cases, because AI-assisted visual recognition is expensive to install and operate, humans did the job more economically.
January 2024
SiliconANGLE - MIT study shows AI is still too costly to replace most human workers
The report’s surprising finding was that just 23% of workers’ wages for such jobs could be cost-effectively replaced by AI systems. “Even with a 50% annual cost decrease, it will take until 2026 before half of the vision tasks have a machine economic advantage,” researchers wrote. “By 2042 there will still exist tasks that are exposed to computer vision, but where human labor has the advantage.”
Computerworld - GenAI set to replace these jobs, disrupt others — and worsen economic inequity
While those trends might appear ominous, the study also found that about half the jobs affected by AI and genAI could benefit from enhanced productivity. For the other 50%, however, genAI tools could be used to execute tasks now done by humans, which could lower labor demand, lead to lower wages and reduce hiring.
Geekwire - AI’s trust problem: Richard Edelman on the risk from the tech industry’s rapid rollouts
But if we rush this, if we put it out in a way where government isn’t seen as being able to regulate because it can’t keep up, or if it’s seen as done without context where there’s reskilling or upskilling to take care of people whose jobs are going to end, then we’re going to have a populist reaction.
ZdNet - Beyond programming: AI spawns a new generation of job roles
These kinds of adverts -- for job roles that were unheard of even a year ago -- are likely to become the norm in the AI era. While everyone in business wants to make the most of AI, it's going to take more than development or data science skills to make the most of emerging technology. There's a raft of responsibilities that are essential to AI efforts, from training algorithms to overseeing ethics.
December 2023
Information Week - Hot Jobs in AI/Data Science for 2024
It’s not a surprise that AI and data science professionals remain in demand given the explosion of AI models on the market, and the rapid-fire advancements since. But just as companies are still struggling to figure out business use cases for LLMs, they also struggle to identify corresponding job roles. To make matters worse, there are additional obstacles popping up along the way.
CIO Dive - There will be a surplus of tech workers by 2026, executives project
As executives work to infuse rapidly evolving AI into their technology strategy, the need for AI-savvy talent has increased. But the current state of demand won’t stay this high in the mid- to long-term, according to the survey.
CIO Influence - CIO’s Roadmap to Aligning AI with Organizational Culture and Operations
Forecasts from Gartner indicate that despite significant AI progress, the global job landscape will remain neutral by the end of 2026—neither experiencing a substantial decrease nor an increase.
November 2023
Information Week - The IT Jobs AI Could Replace and the Ones It Could Create
Simple, repetitive tasks are first in line for the application of AI. Basic data entry and processing functions are likely candidates. Likewise, entry level IT helpdesk and support roles, hardly strangers to automation, could be further shifted away from human workers to AI.
Computerworld - It’s time to take your genAI skills to the next level
The value of “complementarity” in some jobs is intuitive. Software engineers who excel at leveraging genAI tools are more valuable than those who don’t. But someone with genAI skills who lacks programming expertise won’t succeed at software development because letting AI write code that the user can’t understand doesn’t work. And someone who does programming but has no AI skills will struggle to keep up with an industry that’s using AI to accelerate and improve their work. The most hirable developer is one who combines programming and AI skills creatively and effectively.
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