A.I. fears: ChatGPT stole my job!

Illustration showing concepts of A.I. in the workplace.

‘A.I. is going to steal our jobs.’

This seems to be a very real fear for a lot of people.

But should it be?

Let’s look at some of the reasons why A.I (for example, ChatGPT) is perhaps not something to be feared but to be curious and excited about.

Just as the bike played a role in the emancipation of women and steam engines connected cities and ideas, technology is often a force for good.

ChatGPT – the new A.I. search engine – can now pull together well-informed, impressive copy, so perhaps there really no need for me to be writing this blog.

Naturally, I asked ChatGPT if it planned to replace me as an employee engagement consultant. This is what it said:

As an AI language model, I am designed to provide information and assistance on a wide range of topics, including employee engagement. However, it is unlikely that I can fully replace the role of an employee engagement consultant.

Employee engagement consultants typically work closely with organizations to understand their unique needs and challenges and develop customized strategies to improve employee engagement and retention. They often use a combination of data analysis, surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews to gain insights into the organization’s culture and identify areas for improvement.

While I can provide information and insights on employee engagement best practices, I do not have the ability to interact with employees and stakeholders in the same way that a human consultant can. Additionally, employee engagement is a complex and multifaceted topic that requires a deep understanding of human psychology, organizational behavior, and business strategy.

Therefore, while I can support and enhance the work of an employee engagement consultant, it is unlikely that I can fully replace the value of a human consultant in this field.

Phew.

ChatGPT you are my hero!

My job is safe.

However, it did write all that in under 10 seconds, whereas it would have taken me about 10 minutes to rattle it off and refine it.

So, A.I. kind of embarrassed me. Especially as it’ll take me an hour to write this blog.

 

Photograph of a woman wearing a VR headset

 

The future of jobs and A.I.

The truth of it is that yes, for some jobs in certain industries, A.I. will replace the need for humans.

Bookkeepers, proofreaders, eDM marketers, database entry executives, it’s probably time to upskill yourselves or retrain. A.I. will soon be doing the mundane tasks that accountants, lawyers and customer service operatives dislike so much.

But for others, it’ll simply enhance the work we do.

But while A.I. will make some jobs redundant, it’s estimated that it will create 97 million jobs by 2030. So surely the opportunities A.I. affords us far outweigh the downsides.

We recently had the pleasure of sister company Seymour Powell visiting The Team. One of the many projects they’ve completed is the 3D scanning of Historic Scotland’s properties.

This now enables you and I to pop on a VR headset and stand in the middle of their properties, no matter where we are in the world.

Cute, you might think. But so what?

Well, now imagine you’re an engineer who needs to examine a property.

You don’t want to travel from Edinburgh to Inverness, so you grab a VR headset and suddenly you’re able to examine the property and identify areas for maintenance.

As you do so, parts are automatically ordered and a job schedule is completed with the necessary craftswomen and men booked onto the work.

All through A.I.

You can get onto the job of identifying further quality improvements to make, rather than dealing with the admin of the work. A.I. allows us to do more quality work and fewer project management tasks which might be deemed to be ‘mind numbing.

“But, I love project management!” scream a million workers.

And that’s brilliant! Project managers will not disappear.

The need for human-centred skills that enable consensus building; problem solving, negotiation and influencing skills will be just as important.

As Marc Bara, makes clear in his post, A.I. can keep you on time and to budget. KPMG report that A.I. enabled project management has reduced costs by 15%. It has not eliminated the need for the human touch, merely refocused it.

And so the question is, how do employers help their employees embrace a new future that includes A.I.?

At present, the standard media approach to A.I. is to frighten the hell out of people.

As a You Gov research recently discovered, just 30% of UK citizens said they would like to live in the future, versus 56% who would rather live in the past. We find the future scary.

So employers, I encourage you to stop frightening people by pressurising them to develop their future skills.

Instead here’s 4 positive and supportive things we can all do:

  1. Chunk it down: Make it easy and show people how small technological advances can improve their lives at work today. A.I. should make work more interesting – more enjoyable.
  2. Make it fun: Run as many ‘lunch and learns’ as possible. Demystify the future by showing people what A.I., Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality looks like. Get your people excited to start making demands of what this tech can do for them.
  3. Talk about A.I.: approach it in terms of how it will bring benefits to society through human endeavour i.e. ‘How A.I. will help you to focus on the problems that matter.’
  4. Start using it: Find A.I. you can use in your work now. Show people its strengths and weaknesses to demonstrate to people the gap in the market left for them.

As a sign off, I thought I’d ask ChatGPT how it was feeling today. Here’s what it said:

As an artificial intelligence language model, I don’t have emotions or feelings in the same way that humans do. However, I am functioning well and am ready to assist you with any questions or tasks you might have.

Happily, I’m functioning well today too, cheers!