To harness the potential of Artificial intelligence (AI), workers and managers will need to develop an awareness of how AI systems can be integrated in the workplace and develop skills to work alongside AI. Moreover, companies should ensure that ethical considerations are embedded in the decisions AI professionals make when developing and adopting AI systems.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have the potential to profoundly impact labour markets, automating a wide range of tasks that are currently performed by humans. Many fear that automation will replace human workers, rendering their skills obsolete. However, a closer look reveals that while machines and algorithms are becoming increasingly proficient at performing many tasks, including cognitive ones that until recently were the exclusive prerogative of humans, others remain beyond the boundaries of what they can do. Performing a job often requires individuals to complete a large set of tasks, each requiring a different level of proficiency in a skill, and with a different exposure to automation. The first step for humans to integrate emerging technologies effectively, including AI, is to identify the tasks that technologies excel at, and those that they should perform often complementing AI systems.
Although still early days, empirical evidence suggests that the use of generative AI systems could greatly enhance the productivity of workers, but only when AI is used to complete tasks that are within the technology’s ability frontier. A fundamental difference between generative AI and previous technologies lies in AI’s capacity to automate tasks that were traditionally non-routine. Consequently, AI has made significant strides in domains that relied on people’s information processing, problem solving and deductive reasoning skills.
