Even if AI can never be better than you, your job is not safe
You can easily be replaced by worse talent
Developments in AI have been accelerating at a pace that is making a good part of the labor force nervous about losing their job. AI is not the first risk to manual jobs; there is a long history of technology taking over human tasks because they do the job faster, without complaint, and don’t require holidays and health insurance. Just ask your local switchboard operator!
Through all of the uncertainty and turmoil, there are some voices promoting calm: “Don’t worry, AI isn’t better than you yet.” This is meant to prevent panic, but there is one major problem with the argument that AI won’t take your job because it isn’t as good at humans at <insert task> yet.
The problem is the assumption that job skill is the only factor, or even the most important factor determining whether you keep your job.
Companies are entities that make money. Hard stop. Getting the most skilled workers to work for you can be an effective strategy to reach that end, but it’s not the only thing that works and companies know this. Businesses are notorious for making decisions that blow the skill-trumps-all myth out of the water:
- Laying off senior employees and immediately hiring back more junior, cheaper ones for the same work
- Firing well-performing staff at times that happen to precede annual bonuses and financial reports
- Hiring temporary workers to replace highly skilled union workers on strike
- Replacing human workers with less effective, but cheaper machines (think self-checkout machines and automated voice phone lines)
The bottom line is, highly skilled workers are a luxury for companies, not a necessity. In times of corporate stress, greed, and desire to please stakeholders, companies will make decisions that make the bottom line look better, even if it makes the business a little worse at delivering quality products and services. You’d be surprised at how many bad decisions a company can make without immediately going into bankruptcy.
Believe it or not, it gets worse. The phrase “AI won’t replace you” is phrased in a way that makes it seem personal, almost 1:1, like 1 unit of AI will replace individual people one at a time, which I find highly optimistic. I expect far fewer instances of AI replacing CEOs and more cases of AI replacing teams, with possibly 1 human overseeing it.
So what do you do about it as a slow, expensive, meat-based, mistake-making, highly skilled worker?
The worst thing you can do is to sit back and hope technology comes slowly or never. You have a few ways to prepare yourself and adapt to these trends:
- Differentiate: Try to build your skills into something AI can’t duplicate
- Become the AI handler: try to ride the wave that may or may not come
- Leave the hierarchy: Find ways to make money that don’t include a boss that can fire you for a younger, software-based employee
These actions are not mutually exclusive! You can keep your options open until you find something that you want to commit to. The only thing required is a mindset of adaptive learning
