(Web Desk) - Elon Musk insists artificial intelligence will get humans to a point where “no job is needed.”
Are there signs this prediction is already becoming true? Headline numbers can make that seem so.
According to a recent report of 750 business leaders using AI from ResumeBuilder, 37% say the technology replaced workers in 2023. Meanwhile, 44% report that there will be layoffs in 2024 resulting from AI efficiency.
But even amid reports of AI-inspired layoffs, many experts disagree with Musk’s view.
Julia Toothacre, resume and career strategist at ResumeBuilder, recognizes the numbers from its research may not accurately reflect the broad business landscape.
“There are still so many traditional organizations and small businesses that do not embrace technology the way that some of the larger companies do,” Toothacre said.
Layoffs are a reality, but AI technology is also enabling business leaders to restructure and redefine the jobs we do.
Alex Hood, chief product officer at project management and collaboration software company Asana, estimates that half the time we spend at work is on what he calls “work about work.”
Here, he’s referring to the status updates, cross-departmental communication and all the other parts of work that aren’t at the core of why we’re there.
“If that can be reduced because of AI, that can be a great unlock,” said Hood.
He says that without the nuance behind the numbers, the statistics marking and predicting AI-induced layoffs reflect fear more than reality.
With AI tackling task-based work, humans have the opportunity to move up the value chain, says Marc Cenedella, founder of Leet Resumes and Ladders.
“For the entire economy,” Cenedella said workers will be able to focus on “integrating or structuring or defining what the task-based work is.” He compares this shift to mid-century office culture, when there were entire floors of typists — something that the efficiency of word processors eliminated.
According to Asana’s State of AI at Work 2023 report, employees say that 29% of their work tasks are replaceable by AI.
However, Asana is a proponent of what it calls “human-centered AI,” which seeks to enhance human abilities and collaboration, not replace people outright.
The more people understand human-centered AI, the more they believe it will have a positive impact on their work, the report states.
White-collar and clerical workers represent somewhere between 19.6%–30.4% of all employed people globally, according to the United Nations. Analytical and communication tools have redirected knowledge work over the years, and “generative AI should be considered another development in this long continuum of change.”