ΑΙ WANTS YOUR JOB

Stop thinking of AI as a threat and start using it for work. Barry Collins reveals how AI is being used in a variety of industries

- Barry Collins

There’s a dismal tendency with every new technological development to regard it as a threat. Computers, the internet and now AI have all been heralded as a threat to our livelihoods, ignoring our unshakeable ability to adapt.

Yes, AI will likely take many jobs. It already has.

But it can also be a tremendous assistant in the workplace, a technology which – if mastered at this still early stage – could lead to you becoming indispensable, rather than ready for the scrapheap.

We’ve interviewed people who are using AI across a wide cross-section of professions to find out how it’s transforming the way they work. From teachers saving hours on lesson planning, to a gardener despatching invoices from voice memos, to market researchers using AI to rapidly scale the quality of research they’re able to conduct, AI is making an enormous difference in the workplace. And almost all the people we’ve spoken to are using AI tools that are available to everyone for free or at a relatively modest cost.

By all means spend your time fretting over when AI is going to take your job. Or get ahead of the curve and find out how to exploit it for yourself. You never know, it might just work out.

TEACHING

Teaching is one of the professions that has been most disrupted by AI becoming mainstream. With students able to generate essays in seconds – complete with convincing-looking typos and grammaticals if you know the right prompts – the profession’s response has often been defensive, looking for ways to combat AI rather than embrace it.

Others are taking a more openminded approach, finding ways in which AI can enhance learning. Robert Harrison, director of education and integrated technology at ACS International Schools, is among those using AI to lift the burden on teachers, rather than treat it as the enemy.