AI and Job Destruction: Automated Away, or Awesomely Augmented?

AI has had a powerfully disruptive force across a number of major business sectors. Consider the recent comment by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet: “The largest taxi company has no taxis, that’s Uber. The largest accommodation company has no real estate, that’s Airbnb. The largest phone company has no infrastructure, that’s Skype. The most valuable retailer has no inventory, that’s Alibaba. The largest movie theatre has no movie theatres, that’s Netflix.” What do all of these diverse industries have in common? They all rely on and are investing heavily in integrating AI into their business. And they aren’t alone, as the marketplace continues to recognize the powerful potential in the AI revolution.

The Second Miniseries on AI and Job Destruction

This miniseries is the second installment in the larger AI and Job Destruction topic we’ve been exploring. The previous miniseries examined who would be most impacted by job destruction in the AI revolution. In this miniseries, we will be focused on the magnitude of the job destruction.

With all the major economic revolutions (viz. industrial, digital, etc.), there is always fear of job destruction. And job destruction is somewhat inevitable with these sorts of radical leaps forward occur; but the real question is what will be the extent of this job destruction. This question is what determines how worried we should be over the impending AI revolution in the enterprise. In this series, we will take a closer look at the issue of human augmentation by AI. While many fear that the magnitude of AI’s job destruction will be great, augmentation actually provides us with reason for optimism on this front. Together we will observe that AI holds the awesome power to enhance the capabilities of the workforce in impressive ways, thereby making employees more valuable, not more expendable.

Intro to Augmentation: The Excel Analogy

Consider the historical introduction of Microsoft Excel into the workplace. There was a similar ripple of fear that this new technology would essentially render accountants obsolete, destroying numerous jobs. But what actually happened? These accountants didn’t lose their jobs, instead they were enhanced, or augmented by this new software. Excel automated away the tedious and repetitive parts of their jobs, not their jobs altogether. This is an apt analogy for what can be expected from the coming AI revolution. AI will not be automating away our jobs, instead it will be augmenting us by automating away the ennui from our jobs, thereby freeing us up to be creative and strategic in our work. Untethered by tedium, we can be more productive and will likely find work more enjoyable.

Conclusion

This post has largely been an introduction and promissory note regarding the issue of augmentation and AI. In the following posts, we will explore some specific examples of humans currently being augmented by AI, as well peer into the future in an attempt to espy how AI may enhance human workers in the years to come.