When it comes to AI, one of the biggest fears is will it remove jobs. For those that may be raising children or even just thinking about a career spanning a few more decades, I’m sure this has crossed your mind. Like any technology, AI will bring both positive and negatives as some tasks no longer need to be performed by humans and other new types of tasks are created.
In another conversation with Fergal Murphy, we chatted about what these changes may look like, how these changes should influence career-based decisions and what some of the key skills will be as AI is integrated into more of our day-to-day lives.
Is AI going to have a dramatic impact on job security?
There are a lot of people wondering what AI will mean for them. My view is it’s going to speed up parts of people’s jobs, not necessarily replace them.
For example, my first job was as a coder, now that’s moved from being something you do line by line to something you can do at scale using code fragments. It can basically double your productivity because it helps you find the right pieces of code for your work and then can write the code for you. So, today that’s what the effective coders are going to do. They’ll be able to best ask for what they want to enable AI to help them.
Then obviously once you move across any type of office work there are tasks that can be removed or simplified – for example developing a PowerPoint presentation or summarising a whole body of work or meeting.
Do you think it’s still important that people try obtain a degree from university?
I think for most people, they’ll still need that core degree. You know if you want to be a doctor, you’ll likely still need to do a medical degree. If you want to be a lawyer, you’ll probably still need to study law. So I think the fundamentals will still be required. The bigger question for me is how we best train people up to make them as valuable as possible with the technology we have at hand. Curriculums need to change to acknowledge that a lot of the analysis work can be done by machines.
What would be your advice to people considering their next career move?
People often ask me the question, is a certain career path going to be defunct? Is it a bad time to be in content or be a doctor because of AI? I wouldn’t think of it that way. What I’d advise people to do is be curious and become proficient in these technologies. In most disciplines a career path will still be there, but what we’ll see is AI playing more and more of a role.
So follow your heart in terms of your career path, but definitely become familiar with the advancements we’re seeing in AI and the power and speed of change. You want to be on the forefront of change. The biggest job in AI at the moment isn’t being an engineer, it’s writing or specifically prompt writing – people who tell the machine what to do and provide feedback. Some of the best prompt writers are people with humanities backgrounds, so the career possibilities are there for people with various backgrounds.
Has the way you think about the future changed?
Ten years ago I would have probably said people should double down mathematics. That’s where data science was heading. Whereas these days, humanities have come into it a lot more with new forms of generative AI. It’s all about language – the best use of language to get the best analysis you can from the AI model. The ability to rephrase your question to find the best outcome is a key way to experiment and improve analysis – this doesn’t require mathematical training. Generative AI is only as good as the person asking, it’s really down to how you interact with the machine.
What do you think some of the key skills are for the future?
These days you want to be what I call ambidextrous. On the one hand, you need to have the mathematical skills to understand a certain level of analysis, but at the same time you need to have strong communication skills. Communication has always been a good skill to have, but I think it’s never been as important as it is today. Now you can apply communications skills across more careers and have a greater breadth of impact. Some of the best prompt writers are history majors or English majors who can now work across many different types of industries.
How do you speak to your kids about AI and changing technology?
The number one thing I try to teach them is that you still have got to do the hard yards – whatever interest you have – you’ve still got to put the work in. AI and technology doesn’t replace work ethic. The second thing is there is so much potential and no one has the answers, so curiosity and experimentation remains key. To link the two points, persistence is key to curiosity and experimentation. Finally, as with any new technology there are risks and it’s important they understand this. Like anything in life there will be nefarious people trying to do things for the wrong reasons, so they need to educate themselves on what these risks are.
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If you have a question or something you’d like thoughts on when it comes to AI, contact Phil Davis, Managing Director, Q Consulting Group on 0404 803 609 or at phil.davis@qconsultinggroup.com.au.