Many workplaces are replacing their employees with AI, but this doesn’t mean the end for the employees.
AI is sweeping across the world and easily taking over many of our jobs. For instance, Tesla founder Elon Musk claims that AI will eventually make all humans unemployed.
AI is taking over employees’ jobs
However, Musk’s opinions have been extreme many times before, even if the AI trend points in that direction. According to a recent report involving 750 American corporate leaders, 37 percent state that AI took over employees’ jobs during 2023.
Next year, that figure will instead be 44 percent.
In another survey, 29 percent of employees state that their job positions have been taken over by AI over the past year.
With statistics trending in this direction, it’s hard not to get the impression that Musk might be right this time.
But it is also important to have employees who understand AI – as companies need to educate employees on how to use artificial intelligence in the workplace.
Large companies
Even though AI threatens jobs in some places, it is often about large companies. The statistics thus do not reflect the general business climate.
“There are still so many traditional organizations and small businesses that do not embrace technology in the way some of the larger companies do,” says Julia Toothacre, career strategist at ResumeBuilder.
In a global perspective, service staff and office workers make up between 20 and 30 percent of the workforce according to the UN. Here, communication tools have already changed knowledge work over the years, and here AI can continue to represent a significant change, according to CNBC.
No mass unemployment
As a side note in the AI discussion, it is however important to remember that around a third of the world’s population still does not have access to the internet, and thus do not consider AI as an important part of their lives.
Even though AI has begun to take over some jobs, there is no historical evidence that technological advancements like AI will result in mass unemployment.