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CXOtoday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Dr. Antarpreet Singh, Director (Academics), WILL Education
- What new roles could arise with the increased use of AI technology at the workplace?
In todayâs AI age, the narrative has completely shifted from jobs per se to skills within a job. That skill set within each job must be aligned to the changing needs of work that has a key focus to navigate complexity, fluidity, and turbulence. The new age roles will revolve around the data-driven work culture and automation of routine processes through the use of conventional discriminative AI models (e.g., machine learning-based automated profiles screening at the first level for the talent acquisition ecosystem).
- What skills would be prioritized in a work environment dominated by AI?
The new-age skills in AI-led workplaces will have a sharper focus around analytics that covers all four stages: descriptive (statistical analysis), diagnostic (root cause analysis), predictive (forecasting in a non-linear fashion as to what could happen with a greater probability), and prescriptive (providing critical prescriptions to decision-makers that reduce the chances of poor decisions and thus mitigate the risk of losing customers as well as hedge the organization against poor financial decisions).
- What should educational institutions do to ensure that students are ready to enter the job market driven by AI?
There is a misconception that only data science students should learn about analytics. The educational institutes must keep âdesign thinkingâ principles at the center stage while preparing curriculum for various streams. One of the key design elements for these streams is to help students (as functional users) get a good understanding of using various AI tools from the perspective of data analytics. Not every student aspires to choose analytics as a core discipline. At the same time, each student must have an end-to-end view of using both discriminative and generative AI as a way of life.
- In what way can workers protect their careers from AI technology disruption?
It is very important for workers to understand that they must acquire transformative competencies that focus on âFuture Readinessâ. We should also stop living in a self-denial mode that AI would only disrupt technological space. The disruption being caused by AI in every field has a profound impact on each and every workplace. The only answer to mitigating the risk of AI disruptions is to prepare well and equip yourself with the future skills. As per the World Economic Forum, the future skills can be organized around 3 pillars â Learning & Innovation, Leadership & Life management, and Digital & AI. Everyone working in industry and other fields must embrace these future skills.
- What is the potential impact of advanced Generative AI on human creativity and emotional intelligence?
There is a lot of debate on this aspect, and experts have mixed views. However, it would be safe to advocate that human creativity and ingenuity must be preserved at all costs. AI in whatever form (discriminative or generative) must not replace human creativity and emotions. These must remain in the human domain only. Several experts have coined the term âAugmented Intelligenceâ that focuses on the augmentation of human creativity with the computing and analytical power of AI.
- Is there a potential for AI to remove the need for more traditional technical skills, or will there be a greater need for AI proficiency?
This is a natural phenomenon that gained momentum with the advent of Industry 4.0 in the early 90s in the previous century. The technical advancement leads to the displacement of traditional skills. The only difference between Industry 4.0 and what has lately come to be known as Industry 5.0 is the acceleration in adoption of AI-led technologies. The pace of adoption is phenomenal. This makes the traditional digital technologies that came to be known as âenterprise softwareâ from an industry standpoint redundant, as software has become learnable. For AI to be proficient, itâs important that the algorithms must be trained regularly (exactly the way humans learn continuously) or made to learn by themselves. The continuous learning of algorithms is the key to having a proficient AI at a workplace.
- In what ways will businesses have to change their workforce structure to make the best use of AI?
Future readiness of workplaces will require a great deal of attention on aligning the workplace structures in line with harmonious human-AI collaboration. That could mean deskilling of certain processes within jobs as well as complete deskilling of certain routine jobs that can be handled by AI with greater efficiency and at a lower cost. The alignment of workplace structures to facilitate harmonious adoption of AI has to be done very skillfully by the leaders, as selective deskilling of processes and jobs improves efficiency and leads to cost optimization. At the same time, it runs the risk of inducing whatâs termed as âAI-induced anxietyâ that could lower the morale of the workforce. The adoption of AI in a workplace must be harmonious and not at the cost of employees in an organization. We also need to understand that the âselective deskillingâ may cause some rearrangements as some employees may move to roles that require more creativity and ingenuity.