Think Outside the Box: AI and Career Paths Luke Tredinnick

Abstract

In 2017, we should finally see artificial intelligence (AI) implemented in real-world workplaces, rather not only in movies and TV shows. Concerns over the potential effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on traditional job functions have been making their way into public conversation in recent years, despite the widespread adoption of automated checkout lanes and other forms of automation in the service and retail industries. "Many middle-class professionals will be outsourced to machines within the next few decades" according to a report in the Telegraph, and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking expressed concern in a December 2016 Guardian article that "the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining." Meanwhile, a similar prediction was made by a different source in the Telegraph. Professionals and managers are in danger of being supplanted by automation, which was hitherto reserved for manufacturing.