- How much do you know about Artificial Intelligence?
- Do you anticipate using it in the near future?
Artificial Intelligence is a subject I know little about but have experienced. Every time I call to check my credit card balance an artificially generated voice provides the requested information. Autocorrect is getting better and better. Not only does it correct misspelled words, but now it even corrects grammatical errors and punctuation. It even attempts to anticipate what I am going to say next. In fact, that is happening as I write.
Based on articles I have read; AI is going to revolutionize the workplace just like computers did in the 90s when PCs began to populate workstations and offices. Before the PC invasion, a small team of people programmed a large mainframe computer. Entire departments depended on that team for data reports. Everything else was done manually. I had an inbox on the right side of my desk and an outbox on the left side. My secretary would put the mail in the inbox, and I’d put it in the outbox for her to process or file. She’d answer the office phone, transfer calls to me, or take messages and schedule my appointments.
Within three years after PCs and cell phones proliferated in the workplace, correspondence came in the form of emails directly to me as did appointment requests. I was able to get things back in order by creating an office email and an office number that went to the secretary’s desk. The in and outbox system could not be saved.
I believe AI is going to be equally, if not more, disruptive than the personal computer tech revolution. One of the primary concerns is that AI will replace human beings in the workplace. In an article titled “Workplace AI: Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the Workday, Casey Noenick, noted that some estimates indicate that technology will affect many jobs. “In March Goldman Sachs reported that AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs”. On the other hand, some experts believe it will create new jobs that require new skill sets.
Encyclopedia Britannica, typewriters, cameras, slide rules, and buggy whip manufacturers are faint memories in the marketplace, but jobs are plentiful. The key is to be on the front end of the trend, or your products and services will be replaced by the offerings of visionary leaders. Conduct a SWAT analysis to assess your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You won’t succeed in the future unless you prepare for it.
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your knowledge of how AI will be used in the workplace in five years.