AI Made Friendly HERE
Home AI Automation Will AI eliminate or increase jobs?, Marketing & Advertising News, ET BrandEquity

Will AI eliminate or increase jobs?, Marketing & Advertising News, ET BrandEquity

comments off

<p>Representative image (iStock)</p> <p>“/><span>Representative image (iStock)</span>In the last week of December 2023, I was woken up one fine morning by the sound of chirping birds feeding over left over food in the balcony. As I fought the glaze of the morning sun, slowly unlocking my Iphone, something strange aroused my curiosity. One of the usually “dormant” Whatsapp groups I was part of, had over 500+ messages. It turned out that one India’s technology posterboy firms, PayTM (one 97 group) had laid off a thousand employees, roughly one tenth of its workforce. It’s no secret that Generative AI led improvements in efficiency and automation were one of the driving causes of this.The chatter in the Whatsapp group could be loosely summarised as a verbal confrontation between 2 groups with distinct ideologies. The first (and majority) believed that generative AI would be detrimental to humanity in general as it would lead to elimination/automation of multiple low level tasks. One aggressive gentleman in the group used examples that copywriting, proofreading jobs are almost non existing now because AI does a better and faster job than humans. Another vocal participant, who had numbers on his fingertips, shared a Goldman Sachs report that concluded that 300 million jobs globally will be impacted by Gen AI, with over 18% of global jobs on the verge of being automated. Snippets of Elon musk labelling advancements in AI as worse for humanity than nuclear<br />weapons were shared a couple of times in the group too.The minority group- which believed that the job market is NOT a zero sum game with a fixed pie, seemed like lost fishing boats in the tsunami of messages by the former. They brought in precedents from the past, citing examples of automation like steam engine, microchips, etc, and how everytime humanity felt that the next generations would suffer from large scale unemployment, they were always proved wrong. As I covered the 30 minute journey from JBR to Kite beach(Dubai) for a surf, I pondered deeper over some of the arguments made. In principle, I acknowledge that none of the large – scale platform shift technological advancements, have led to any long term job losses. On the contrary, they have led to more job creation in the long run. Whether you take the first blueprint of the steam engine in 1712, leading to significant reduction in the cost of locomotion, OR the commissioning of<br />microchip in 1958, paving the way for IBM and INTEL to significantly reduce computational costs, OR the birth of Internet in 1993, paving way for internet giants to reduce distribution costs- the trends were similar. In the short term there was a loss of low level jobs, but due to the efficiencies created — the size of the overall job market increased.But they key question that no one has been able to answer- is PAST always an accurate predictor of the Future? After all, the above examples all suffer from “survival bias”. The thesis only holds true till the day it’s proved wrong. Moreover, the generative AI platform shift (or the subsequent AGI shift), is fundamentally very different than all previous shifts, even if you date back to the invention of the wheel 5000 years back. This time, the efficiency gain is in terms of CREATIVITY, INTELLIGENCE and JUDGEMENT, each of which are aspects that have led to humans staking claim to being the most “superior” of all forms of life on the earth, even though there are physically stronger species like the lion and the tiger. Just like horses were “replaced” after steam engines became the prevalent mode of travel, will humans also have better substitutes for MOST jobs ?</p> <p>Part of the solution may be found in research conducted over a century before the inception of the first microchip. In 1865, a young English economist named William Stanley Jevons delved into the correlation between productivity, efficiency, and coal consumption in manufacturing processes. Despite optimistic forecasts by some economists regarding the reduction of pollution due to the increased efficiency of James Watt’s newly introduced steam engine, Jevons had a different perspective. He observed that as efficiency lowered the production cost associated with a specific resource, the market demand for that resource would rise. Jevons accurately predicted that coal pollution would surge due to the increased demand brought about by Watt’s efficient invention. Despite the steam engine’s enhanced efficiency, it paradoxically led to heightened demand and, consequently, increased pollution.</p> <p>Essentially, Jevons Paradox posits that “If the Demand for the resource is price elastic, in the long term, an improvement in resource use efficiency will result in increased resource consumption rather than a decrease.” Over time, energy efficiency has consistently adhered to this paradox — the more efficiently energy is produced, the greater the energy consumption.</p> <p>A practical example from the 1980s illustrates this paradox in action. The advent of Excel spreadsheet applications led to a 44% decrease in the demand for bookkeepers. However, the demand for accountants, auditors, financial managers, and management analysts surged almost fourfold. Network effects on modern day marketplaces also loosely exhibit Devons paradox. Uber improved matching efficiency (by increasing geographical supply, better algorithmic matching) to reduce cab wait times for end customers. This efficiency improvement, counter-intuitively ended up increasing total ride times for the drivers since the increased efficiency (less wait time) unlocked additional latent demand. When technological efficiency lowers the resource cost per unit output in a specific process, it tends to stimulate an increased demand for those or similar resources to accommodate the rise in overall output.</p> <p>This was true 150 years back, holds true NOW, and will continue to hold true as AI scientists continue to unlock limitless possibilities for the world!</p> <p><img decoding=

From data handling to customer retention, AI will save a ton of time by providing effective data analysis and automation. With a keen focus on integrating cutting-edge capabilities such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) for deeper insights and fortifying data privacy and security measures to instill trust, the author delves into the multifaceted potential of Salesforce CRM in empowering organizations to thrive amidst an increasingly dynamic and competitive landscape.

  • Published On Mar 8, 2024 at 08:47 AM IST

Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals

Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis.

Newsletter icon

Download ETBrandEquity App

  • Get Realtime updates
  • Save your favourite articles

Scan to download App

Originally Appeared Here

You May Also Like

The Increased Adoption of AI and Automation in Retail

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market to Grow by USD 8.7 Billion (2024-2028) with AI’s Rising Impact on Trends

Slack introduces AI-powered chatbots and automation workflows

How Aifleet is Growing with its AI-Driven Approach to Trucking – Fleet Management

VIAVI launches ‘VAMOS’ an AI platform for Wireless and Cloud networks

The Tech Advantage: Leveraging AI and Automation for Better Customer Experience

About the Author:

Early Bird