Brave New World

How AI will impact work and jobs

- Ralph Haupter

There’s no doubt that the advent of broadly-available Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers businesses the prospect of increased productivity and accelerated innovation, whilst also enabling society to help solve some of its toughest - and most persistent - challenges: disease, famine, climate control and natural disasters.

AI is already delivering tangible economic benefits for many organisations across Asia Pacific.

For example, leading global container shipping company OOCL reports that applying AI to their business is already saving them US$10 million annually, whilst Apollo Hospitals in India are using AI to help predict heart disease amongst its patients.

While we may marvel at what benefits Artificial Intelligence can bring, we are also mindful of AI as a disrupter, especially when it comes to the displacement of jobs. In fact, a key topic of discussion that surfaces when I meet with CEOs and government leaders across Asia Pacific is on the ramifications of AI on the workforce.

It is also pertinent to examine the far-reaching implication that AI brings to the workforce and ask ourselves if the social disruptions that AI can potentially create will ultimately overshadow its benefits.

The Evolution of Jobs in the AI-Shaped Future

Let’s first put things in perspective: large-scale disruption is a challenge with every industrial revolution. What 250 years of technological changes have taught us is that technology will have profound implications on the creation, elimination or evolution of jobs.