Any discussion of the impact of generative AI is usually accompanied by a discussion of job cuts.
Certainly, according to some estimates, AI could lead to the automation of more than 25% of jobs. But the same study also suggests that generative AI could provide new opportunities for employees.
Four business leaders share how they think generative AI will help improve the workplace.
1. She can do things we find annoying
Alex Hibbitt, director of engineering at albelli-Photobox Group, says his positive perceptions of generative AI are closely tied to its impact in website reliability engineering. “When you consider the machine learning and AI elements that Amazon, as a platform, has added over the years, it makes my job so much easier,” he says.
He gives an example: Mr. Hibbitt’s team traditionally had to manually manage autoscaling, which is a method of dynamically adjusting resources used in cloud computing.
Today, AWS Auto Scaling monitors applications and automatically scales capacity to ensure predictable performance: “Automation has made this business much easier,” he says.
According to Hibbitt, the key for professionals is to recognize that humans are not good at boring tasks. AI, on the other hand, excels when asked to perform repetitive tasks. “Value will come from the software engineering community,” he says. “Generative AI can help us accomplish the tedious tasks we hate to do, but need to do as part of our job.”
Of course, AI is still in its infancy. So what will happen when generative AI expands its capabilities and takes a liking to the most creative areas of work? The answer, according to Mr. Hibbitt, is still a long way off. “It’s hard to know if AI will ever be able to replace humans – it’s hard to get all that context and be able to focus it. I don’t think AI is still able to perform this job, so as an engineer, I’m not worried about my job being transferred to AI.”
2. It improves productivity
Robyn Furby, head of technology adoption at NFU Mutual, explains that the introduction of generative AI has a wide range of perceptions. “There are people who are excited, others who are nervous and still others who don’t even understand what it is about,” she says.
For those still unconvinced of the benefits of generative AI, Furby believes there is reason to be optimistic.
Yes, this emerging technology could replace some professional activities, but it is up to us to ensure that its exploitation is focused on eliminating repetitive tasks, such as analyzing spreadsheets for typing errors.
“I think we should be excited because it has the potential to allow us to do more high-value things in our work, and less things that don’t require significant thought processes,” she says.
Furby believes it’s important to recognize that the introduction of generative AI should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means to increase productivity. “Don’t ask him to write your emails, project proposals, or blog posts. Ask him to give you insights and help get your own creative process started. If you’re using generative AI in this way, it will boost your productivity instead of replacing you.”
3. It frees up time for interesting activities
Simon Langthorne, head of customer relationship management at Virgin Atlantic, says the airline is currently testing Firefly, an AI-powered product from Adobe that could help employees create personalized content for customers. fast and efficient way.
These first forays into the field of generative AI left him with a positive feeling: “To be honest, I think it’s more about excitement than concern about the impact of AI”.
This positive feeling is linked to that of opportunity. According to him, all companies face constraints in terms of human resources, time and budget.
The ability of AI to take over much of the work associated with day-to-day operations could allow internal staff to focus on more innovative and interesting projects.
“I think it’s always a challenge to know how to become more efficient in the things that you can do, and how you can tackle more subjects and evolve at high speed. And I think that’s where lies interest – generative AI could help us.”
For all his enthusiasm, Langthorne doesn’t want to ignore the concerns of people who worry about the rise of generative systems, such as ChatGPT. “Could AI create efficiencies that lead to lost jobs? I can understand that being a concern, but I’m looking at it more from an opportunity perspective.”
4. It opens up new areas of innovation
Like some of his peers in digital leadership, Wulstan Reeve, chief data officer at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), believes that generative AI will commoditize activities that currently consume time and money on the spot. of work.
Mr. Reeve believes that many of these tasks could be accomplished at incredibly low cost with the help of AI in the not-too-distant future.
He adds, however, that improving existing work processes isn’t the only potential benefit: “I think it will pave the way for whole new things that we couldn’t really do before.”
Reeve says LGIM is already experimenting with using AI within the company. However, the finance company and its staff should proceed with caution due to the heavy regulation of the financial industry. “The variety of use cases that can take advantage of generative AI is huge. I don’t think society has really realized how big it could be,” he says.
“I think its scope could be expanded. ChatGPT won’t be the last of these evolutions, and we will see rapid and dazzling developments. But I think the use of generative AI will be a total game-changer “.
Mr. Reeve believes that it is the duty of all professionals to pay attention to these developments, but this interest must be accompanied by a reflection on how new systems can be used and operated in an ethical way. “I think it will be interesting to look at generative AI across the full spectrum of value drivers,” he says. “But it will also be essential to do so taking into account all dimensions of society.”
Source: “ZDNet.com”