The Age of AI

By A. S. Thiollier

Whether you’ve stopped to notice it or not, the world is barreling into a new era. The AI revolution is moving so fast that artificial intelligence is quickly catching up with the human brain. While this could certainly push significant advancements across the globe, technology will certainly bring changes to how we humans live and work, a fact that has already had major impacts on jobs around the world. As of 2000, automation has already replaced 1.7 billion jobs, and AI threatens to replace several more. Now referred to as the 4th industrial revolution, or the AI Age, a new chapter is upon us, and it could affect, alter, or completely eliminate the need for humans in specific industries.  


Some of the jobs presumed to be the most at risk are customer service representatives, car drivers, entry-level programmers, and graphic designers, among others. Customer service has almost entirely been replaced by chatbots and virtual assistants, that you may have come across in a “reclame aqui” chat or call. Autonomous vehicles such as Waymo have seen advancements in recent years, and will most likely replace truck, taxi, and Uber drivers, even if it still takes a while before this happens. Chat GPT and similar tools can create codes, eliminating the need for programmers in low-creativity projects. Finally, graphic designers are now competing with AI-generated art, which brings an added concern of being open to the public. Workers in these industries may be facing serious challenges in the near future, and must potentially learn to adapt to a changing world.  


However, most jobs will be enhanced, not threatened, by artificial intelligence. In the vast majority of industries, some tasks require creativity and/or an organic, human touch. The more repetitive, mundane tasks can be undertaken or at least made more efficient through AI, giving humans more time to focus on other occupations, work-related or not. However, to succeed, companies must start thinking sooner rather than later about how they can incorporate technology into the modern workplace. This involves identifying tasks that could be augmented or automated and training employees to adapt to working with AI in the future.  


On the flip side of the equation, there will be jobs created by the expanding technology. Jobs such as AI and Machine learning specialists, data analysts, robotics engineers and other technology-related jobs are expected to grow the fastest in the upcoming years.  


Whether you view AI as a good or bad thing, it certainly has opened up a new chapter in human development. This has caused many people to become worried about how this will affect their jobs, but the truth is that for the most part, AI will not endanger but instead enhance the workplace experience, bringing efficiency to more mundane tasks and helping us find time for other ones. As humans, we still master a few things that AI can't figure out: communication, decision-making, leadership, and compassion. And while that is still true (and hopefully it will stay that way for a long time), we still have an important role to play.