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Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a force of seismic change in the job market. As technology assumes ever more human-like roles, it’s important to be mindful of people’s concerns that it could impinge on their careers. The World Economic Forum predicts automation could displace 85 million jobs from 2020-25. However, it’s also exciting to ask, how might AI improve our working lives?
The answer is through innovation. AI is capable of providing organisations with comprehensive analysis of their competencies and value chains. With human ingenuity, this creates opportunities to combine and collaborate across industries and professions, generating jobs that are not yet commonly recognised. The Venture Building arm of the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation (CBIT) at Nottingham Business School interacts with many startups that are doing just this. For instance, CBIT recently secured UKRI funded project BeefTwin, engaging with a series of ventures that leverage AI to create digital twins of livestock, aiming to balance environmental sustainability, economic viability, and social responsibility within the beef industry.
Farmers engaged in the project are upskilling as tech operators for IoT (Internet of Things) devices, allowing them to monitor animal health and environmental conditions in real-time. There is also demand for data analysts behind the scenes, precision logistic services with veterinary add-ons, and drone operators managing farmlands. The possibilities afforded by AI adoption have created higher-value jobs across the industry, illustrating how AI enables business growth and new, meaningful employment opportunities.
How will AI help entrepreneurs?
So, it seems likely that AI will not replace most people’s jobs; humans empowered by AI will. Learning how to use AI tools has become essential for business success, for entrepreneurs just as much as for employees at large organisations. It may even be more important for entrepreneurs to develop their proficiency with this technology because they are at the forefront of innovation and creating better jobs. Using AI to automate certain tasks enables entrepreneurs to focus on higher-value activities, generating new jobs through their value chains.
One such example that CBIT has worked with is an innovative air purifying tech company. Conducting targeted sales activities for air purification devices was time-intensive and involved a lot of paperwork, and AI played a vital role in streamlining certain processes. With the time this freed up and the improved access to data and analytics, the business was able to explore new product lines, such as equipping air filters with ‘air-twin’ technology that allows them to create digital replicas of target clients’ local environments. Without AI, the solution might have been to hire additional sales workers, but now the company is investigating ways to expand product development and develop integrated solutions with other technologies.
This demonstrates that entrepreneurs can not only harness the power of AI to employ people in fields that simply did not exist before, they are actually able to create more jobs overall. Envision a small or medium-sized enterprise with multiple product / service lines. Before AI reached its current capabilities, the CEO would have had to hire multiple product owners. With the assistance of AI, each product owner is now capable of overseeing a greater part of the business operations, allowing the company to cut costs and increase its profit margin. It sounds like this means fewer jobs, but the opposite is true. By enabling smaller companies to scale up their operations in a cost-effective manner, it empowers startups to compete more effectively with larger companies. Entrepreneurs have more tools at their disposal to get their ventures off the ground, and a bigger pool of potential employers means more jobs.
How can AI assist in the creative process?
AI also has the potential to make companies more resilient. The CBIT works with a leading UK personal care brand and CBIT supported the company in using AI to provide near-instantaneous analysis of market trends. Subsequently, the AI engine dynamically reconfigures the supply network to start addressing such emerging opportunities. Employing AI like this could help entrepreneurs identify where there are gaps in the market for new kinds of products or services
Outside of its analytical function, AI – especially generative AI (GenAI) – is also becoming more like an intelligence agent, a sparring partner for entrepreneurs. Unlike previously discussed uses for AI, tailoring services to individual customers or automating processes for resource optimisation, these sparring partners can provide counterpoints to entrepreneurs’ strategic plans, helping them identify and evaluate areas for further consideration. These intelligence agents offer personalised and contextualised support for CEOs at scale. Just imagine the difference it could make to you as a CEO, having access to the equivalent of thousands of experts around the world to advise you according to your specific situation, on-demand and in real-time.
Moreover, AI helped to rapidly develop high-fidelity prototypes that closely mirror the final products. By integrating advanced algorithms, predictive analytics, and iterative design tools, they can refine concepts in real-time, cut down on costly trial-and-error, and ultimately bring more polished, user-centred solutions to market faster. This AI-driven approach empowers startups as such to innovate with agility, confidently validate their ideas, and gain a competitive edge in ever-evolving industries.
How will AI affect the relationship between entrepreneurs and expert consultants?
Naturally, this means a shift in the role of expert advisers and consultants. In most cases, AI is triggering an evolution, not an elimination, of these roles. Just as entrepreneurs are adapting AI tools to process data, generate in-depth analytics, develop new products and services, and refine strategy, consultants are using AI for similar purposes. They can maximise efficiency when researching a company, allowing them to provide tailored advice and expertise in a fraction of the time it would take without these tools.
So, how does this work in practice? One example is an AI-driven platform created by CBIT, which analyses the potential value of companies’ competencies rather than their current products. CBIT has employed this tool over the last decade to advise a car seat manufacturer that was struggling as business was outsourced to Asia. Their initial idea for diversifying was to start making other kinds of chairs. However, with AI assistance, consultants ascertained the manufacturer had a wide range of metal processing competencies. This kicked off a transition in the company’s strategy and, after a few years, they turned into a jewellery exporter. When their market reached saturation, they did the same thing again, supplying metal wound clamps for battlefield medics.
Achieving this level of agility as a business requires human ingenuity. It is possible to get close without using AI, but the process is much slower, much smaller scale, and more expensive. The way forward for most companies, such as those being piloted in the new CBIT platform, is for AI to analyse and lead business transformations, a process we could see happen in the thousands. Then, human intellect will work with technology to co-create optimal solutions. We will work in collaboration with AI, not in competition with it. The result will be more startups becoming successful, meaning more employers generating high-value jobs.