What AI Means to Your Career
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It’s all the rage to talk about how ChatGPT and other AI tools make the jobseeker’s life so easy, helping them craft resumes, draft cover letters, prepare for interviews, etc.
But what about its implications for the workforce?
We’re beyond the stage of debating whether AI tools are evil, promote cheating, and should be banned from school and work. The calculator ban didn’t last long, did it?
Now it’s time to consider what it means when embarking on a career or executing a career pivot.
Corporate Speak vs. Reality
The first reaction is that these tools will free people up to do higher-level things, engage more with customers, etc. That’s corporate speak. It’s not very fashionable for management to talk gleefully about reducing headcount. However, some, like IBM, are talking more realistically about the impact of AI on their workforces.
Much of the current corporate line sounds very rosy, but what effect did automated toll collection, Netflix, and automated teller machines (ATMs) have on headcount? I don’t think anyone would argue that these advances have increased aggregate demand for labor among highway authorities, video stores, and bank tellers.
The same will be said of AI's revolution on white-collar jobs. The power of these tools is undeniable, allowing them to tackle tasks that were formerly only done by skilled people.
What the Studies Suggest About the Impact on Employment
Several research studies have tried to determine what jobs will see the greatest impact from AI technologies.
One co-authored by Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and NYU in March 2023 indicated that the 20 top occupations exposed to AI, especially including the effect of language modeling, include telemarketers and a variety of post-secondary teachers such as English language and literature, foreign language and literature, and history teachers.
The top industries exposed were determined to be legal services and securities, commodities, and investments. Side note: JPMorgan is trademarking the name IndexGPT for its automated investment advice offering.
In this study, exposure could mean augmentation or substitution, so the findings are agnostic to the direction of the impact.
In the same month, Goldman Sachs issued a report indicating the labor market could face significant disruption. According to Goldman, “Using data on occupational tasks in both the US and Europe, we find that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. Extrapolating our estimates globally suggests that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300mn full-time jobs to automation. The good news is that worker displacement from automation has historically been offset by the creation of new jobs, and the emergence of new occupations following technological innovations accounts for the vast majority of long-run employment growth.”
And a Challenger, Gray, & Christmas report of April 2023 indicates that ChatGPT itself said it could replace the following jobs:
Customer Service Representatives
Technical Writers
Translators and Interpreters
Copywriters
Data Entry Clerks
Why This Innovation Wave Is Different Than Prior Ones
Many prior technological advances freed people from dirty, exhausting, and tedious jobs. Think farming, factory work, and construction. However, the current advances automate tasks that skilled, educated workers have handled. In earlier waves, people could be retrained to take on jobs with more skill and judgment. In the current wave, upward mobility may be more limited.
What Does That Mean to Your Career?
The upshot is that you can take several steps to address this current wave of innovation.
1. Keep up on and master new technologies, applying them to your school work, internships, or full-time jobs as applicable.
2. When considering full-time roles, consider the impact that AI and language models will have on the future of the role. For example, if you are offered the role of a copywriter or a clerical financial position that may well be automated in the not-too-distant future, think twice about taking it.
3. Try to identify roles where your strengths and interests may be applied that are less likely to feel the pinch of AI. Those roles typically require high-value skillsets like critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, and complex decision-making.
4. Seek Out Collaborative Roles. Language models like ChatGPT excel in providing automated responses and generating content, but they lack human qualities such as empathy, intuition, and relationship-building. Jobs that involve human interaction, collaboration, and emotional intelligence are less likely to be fully replaced by AI. Careers in fields like counseling, consulting, some forms of customer service, and most but not all roles in creative industries will continue to thrive.
5. Cultivate Adaptability and Agility. In a rapidly changing job market, adaptability and agility are key attributes for career success. Be open to exploring new roles, industries, and technologies. Embrace a growth mindset and be willing to step out of your comfort zone. Develop a diverse set of skills that can be applied across various domains, allowing you to pivot and adapt to emerging opportunities as they arise. Remember, your last job in life may be dramatically different from your first one.
6. Become an Expert in These Emerging Fields. Rather than fearing the rise of language models, consider embracing and exploring the emerging fields and opportunities they create. Become familiar with AI technology, natural language processing, and machine learning. By positioning yourself as an expert in these areas, you can leverage your expertise to work alongside AI systems, ensuring human oversight and optimizing their applications.
Going into a job search keeping these things in mind will position you far better than simply mindlessly applying broadly only to find yourself in a role with shrinking demand. While one can always defy the odds, it’s always better to plant in a more fertile field.
Feel free to email me with your questions and comments at neil@danzgergroup.com. I respond to every email.
Do you or someone you know need help determining what kinds of roles and companies would be great work situations? Conducting an effective job search without endlessly applying online? I coach and advise people 1:1 and in hybrid 1:1/small group settings. Learn more about my career coaching and sign up for a free 30-minute Career Solutions Call.