By Annegrethe Scholtz
I'm sitting in an industry training and I wonder, when should we ask AI?
Like clockwork, as is customary in our modern era, the group began to discuss how AI could support the process at hand.
Ask yourself, they said: "Could a bright junior consultant with clear instructions, unlimited time, and access to available data do this task well? If the answer is "yes" then AI is a viable option." This is great advice, really. It sobers us to the fact that AI does have certain limitations but also highlights the time and efficiency gains it can offer.
Yet, in the back of my mind I keep thinking why don't we ask a bright junior consultant? Each week I see more and more of my peers #OpentoWork on LinkedIn. Brilliant, driven, hardworking young people who haven't found an opportunity yet.
I know budgets are tight. I know creative destruction is an expected outcome of any innovation. How many people lost jobs when the sewing machine was introduced, or when video killed the radio star, only for entirely new sectors to emerge!
Still, I am concerned.
How do we as the current "junior consultant" generation learn the skills we need for the future of our careers when foundational experiences are limited and cutthroat. When what we are typically tasked with is outsourced to an artificial intelligence.
I think AI has the potential to make the world a better place. To allow everyone to spend less time at work and more time with their loved ones, to optimise resource use, to increase efficiency, the list goes on. But this potential hinges on the decisions we make now. How are we using AI? Are we expecting greater outputs? Are we doing more work than before rather than relieving the burden of overworked teams? Who is benefiting from AI? Who is left behind?
I encourage you to use AI to spend less time on work but think more. Let it take over the tasks that drain you. Let it simplify gruelling work. You can let it support your process. But don't forget that the young people want to learn how to do it. How to understand tasks that are second nature to you. We aspire to be professionals in a space that is new to us. It may take us a bit longer than the trusted machine, but it will shape us.
We shouldn't fear innovation, but let's not fear what it means to be human either.
I leave you with this poem by Joseph Fasano
For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper
Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now.
I know your days are precious
on this Earth.
But what are you trying
to be free of?
The living? The miraculous
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.
