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According to the IBM think tank, 40% of the workforce they are going to have to “retrain” in the next few years. You may have already guessed: it is artificial intelligence that is causing such huge changes. We can panic at this news (1.4 billion people with the flawed skills), or we will take a step back and consider whether the way we work needs to change.
I’m optimistic about the ongoing “Great Reskill” because I know that not only the privileged few will have a probability to transform. Improvements in AI skills are not limited to people with engineering degrees or technical knowledge. In the coming years, we are going to all be forced to reinvent ourselves at work, and there might be opportunities to emerge in more fulfilling roles.
I’ve seen this variation up close as a CEO in an industry at the forefront of AI disruption: customer support. There are agents throughout the world feeling influenced by your work. However, many use this moment as a place to begin, an incentive to rethink their profession.
Moving beyond anxiety about artificial intelligence
I know that concern about aging is common and growing. Gallup reports that 22% of us live with this fear. As the founding father of a customer support AI platform, I see this anxiety firsthand in the firms we work with as people try to redefine themselves in a rapidly changing field. But as a one-time customer support agent, I also understand that these employees have perspectives and skills that have not been tapped yet.
I’m reminded of a famous mistake that was made when ATMs first appeared in the Nineteen Eighties. Everyone thought it was the end of bank tellers, but it really was the role of bank tellers was rethought focus on marketing and interpersonal skills, and the variety of bank teller positions has actually increased. Similarly, latest reports suggest that artificial intelligence can create more jobs than it destroys.
So if we will move beyond our anxiety, The Great Retraining will change into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to discover recent avenues of meaningful work. Many of us felt hungry just such a revolution since the pandemic turned office life the wrong way up. This could also be the moment where recent roles and recent settings begin to take shape.
Where there is a desire to retrain, automation becomes the starting, not the end.
What skills are price developing
To make sure you play a role in an AI-powered company (i.e. any future company), you may now double-click on several skills.
1. Learn to manage an AI agent
Soon almost every worker will change into a manager own team of AI agents. Those who prove adept at maximizing the use of AI for all the pieces from task management to content creation and customer support will quickly stand out. Ultimately, managing an AI agent has a lot in common with effectively managing any worker: you would like to equip them with key skills, monitor performance, seize teachable moments, and ultimately learn to let go and delegate tasks.
2. Improve your data literacy
Those who know how to navigate large data sets use data visualization tools and marshal data to improve AI tools they might be vital members of the team. Remember: artificial intelligence relies on huge amounts of information. By becoming a data creator—one who is not afraid of information sets but translates them into resources that are useful to the team—you set yourself at the heart of the process.
3. Focus on your humanity
Audit your current role and truthfully resolve which elements might be automated and which cannot. Double yours specialized human knowledge. Never doubt the value of motivating your team or strategizing on an untapped market, for example. You may even excel in “softer” skills, reminiscent of emotional intelligence and ethical awareness. Emphasizing your human-specific value makes you a one who cannot get replaced.
Continuing “The Great Reskill”.
So what can firms and individuals do to seize this moment relatively than get caught up in it? I have seen too many firms reflexively lay off employees after implementing AI, wanting rapid productivity gains. For me this might be shortsighted and common backfire.
In turn, progressive firms are reaping the advantages that artificial intelligence provides reinvesting it in your people. Some people call it “abundance program” where the profits from AI allow a company to increase its capabilities overnight, and the only cost is training everyone to use AI.
As employees gain recent skills, they are going to take on recent and improved roles – and which will just be what they are is still being defined. Some people do (*3*)manage entire fleets of agentssynchronizing them with the company’s larger goals while having fun with superhuman influence. Others will focus on shaping the behavior of individual AI agents, becoming “fast engineers,” “AI personality designers,” and “AI ethicists.”
I really like telling the story of a young woman named Meagan who began her profession as a front-line customer support agent at a financial services company and now has a job that did not exist a yr ago: she is the trainer of a team of hit AI agents. For Meagan, her knowledge of artificial intelligence (coupled with a willingness to rethink her role) fueled her profession. She rose through the ranks and is now viewed by company leadership and other departments as an artificial intelligence expert. Her experience is symbolic of the opportunities that lie ahead for all of us.
I think it is also vital to understand that there is no need to wait for a signal from the relevant authorities to start retraining AI. As with any recent, disruptive technology (PC, web, mobile), the best way to learn about AI is to get your hands dirty and just start using the tools. Unlike previous technologies, no coding knowledge or engineering degree is required.
In fact, some of the biggest advances in integrating artificial intelligence in the workplace have been made by people with non-technical education. If you should use ChatGPT to develop a meal plan or release fan fiction, you should use it to do your job higher.
The next few years might be massively disruptive for almost every field and no one knows exactly where the chips will fall. But one thing I do know: it is the one who adopts AI who will own tomorrow’s job market, not AI itself. Meeting the way forward for artificial intelligence with curiosity and the desire to improve our skills is the way to thrive in uncertain times.