We have all read about artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and the impact they are going to have on the world. There have been plenty of lurid headlines about the ‘millions of jobs’ that will be lost to AI.
Put the simple query ‘how many jobs will be lost to AI?’ into Google and the answers are alarming – with one article suggesting that the combined impact of AI, ML and robotics could see a billion jobs lost worldwide. It also forecasts that a quarter of all jobs could go in the US by 2030.
The key question, of course, is which jobs? Is yours one of the jobs at risk?
There will be significant job losses in fields like advertising and market research. AI and ML will simply become better than people at knowing what we want and persuading us to buy it. It has been said that ‘data is the new oil’ and with every transaction we make online generating yet more data about our wants and behaviour, the algorithms will get ever more accurate.
Neither will firms need telesales people to deliver their message. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief thinking you’ll never get another call: you will, it will just be a bot making the call, using an ever-more-believable synthetic voice – and quite possibly with that voice specifically tailored to the person it’s calling.
Accountants and other professionals are going to see their jobs come under threat. Many readers will be aware of programmes such as QuickBooks and FreshBooks. The software will only become more sophisticated and it will increasingly interact with the taxman’s software. The annual visit to the accountant with a carrier bag full of paperwork will become a distant memory.
We have all seen the growth of self-service checkouts in supermarkets and many of us will have ‘scanned’ our weekly supermarket shop. Combine this with the change in shopping habits due to the pandemic and the days of the retail sales assistant are numbered. As your phone tracks your location, expect to see personalised offers appear depending on where you are.
The HR department is also going to take a hit. There are already platforms such as Workday that will take care of ‘finance, planning and HR’ and the simple fact is that machines sort data better – and much more quickly – than people do. Anything that involves a large volume of processing will be done by a machine in the future.
Proof-readers and editors will be replaced by AI and ML and, sadly, so will the writer of this article. As far back as 2019, the New York Times was reporting on ‘the rise of the robot reporter’. Expect more and more of your news content to be delivered by a machine.
It is important to take professional advice before making any decision relating to your personal finances. Information within this article does not provide individual tailored investment advice and is for guidance only. We cannot assume legal liability for any errors or omissions it might contain. Ethical Futures llp is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.