Have you taken time to think through how the concept of work and professions as we know it today is changing significantly due to the rise in technology adoption? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is giving birth to newer possibilities daily while scavenging on what has traditionally made us believe we are working.
If you are yet to wake up to that reality, take time to look around you and see how technology has made the way we run our life much more different today as compared to a decade or two ago.
You are a student at the verge of deciding what profession you want to undertake at University or you might be a parent that has to help your child make a lifelong decision on their career direction.
With the growth of AI, focus is now shifting towards distinctly human capabilities. Work as we know it is forking out into two tracks. They are:
Professionalised Roles: With these jobs, AI acts as a very powerful assistant by automating routine tasks so that the experts can focus on higher level thinking, human skills and problem solving. Take the example of a Radiologist who uses AI to analyse scans faster or that crop scientist using AI to quickly diagnose a plant disease and even the programmer who uses AI to debug malfunctioning code. There is likely to be growth in these highly professionalised roles.
Democratised Roles: These are roles that AI will make simpler allowing non experts to perform tasks that once required more specialised training. They include Data Analysis, Business Intelligence Experts, Software Developers, Graphics designing and multimedia, Market Research, Copywriting etc. While not being washed away completely, they are likely to reduce significantly.
The traditional career ladder is changing. The entry level jobs of today require skills that used to be considered senior level previously like leadership, judgement, creativity and decision making.
The implication here for any student is to build a strong foundation in durable human skills alongside their chosen field of study. In this AI age, the following should not be overlooked;
Deep expertise will still matter. AI is likely to make domain expertise more valuable, not less. While one can learn how to use an AI tool within hours, you cannot learn to deeply understand a medical condition or complex engineering problem within the same time. So, if you are a student, do not merely attend school to pass, go genuinely deep in your area of undertaking.
Curiosity is becoming a key skill. With a world where information is readily available, those with the ability to ask the right questions, stay curious, and continually learn stand to have an advantage over their peers. It makes one more adaptable to new tools and opportunities while also becoming more resilient to change.
Adaptability is crucial. The pace of change is accelerating. Recently, I heard someone joke that in Uganda today, if you sleep for 24 hours, you wake up to an entirely new country. The most successful individuals going forward are those who can learn, unlearn and relearn. Readiness to revise a career plan and adapt to new circumstances is becoming more important than ever.
Some concrete steps a student can take to prepare themselves for the AI driven future are:
1. Focus on a strong foundation. Study a subject area you are passionate about and build expertise in it. Undertaking study because your parent wants to live their failed dream in you forcefully will not help.
2. Cultivate soft skills. Undertake development of skills like critical thinking, communication, empathy and adaptability through extracurricular activities, part time jobs or volunteering.
3. Cultivate Curiosity and AI literacy. You do not have to become a programmer but be curious how AI works and find ways of utilising it in your area of specialty as a tool.
4. Embrace Life Long Learning. Abandon the idea of One degree setting you up for a 40-year long career. That is outdated and was probably appropriate for your grandfather and father. Your future is going to be a journey of continous learning hence setting you up for long term success.
The future of work is not about humans being replaced by AI, but about humans working alongside it. The ones who combine deep knowledge with distinctively human skills will not only find work but also be the ones shaping the future.
You might be having questions about durable human skills. In a subsequent article, I will throw more light on that.
James Wire
Agribusiness & Technology Consultant
X – @wirejames
The Wire Perspective 