72% of Fortune 500 Chief Human Resources Officers (CHRO) foresee AI replacing jobs in their organisations in the next three years.
That is according to
a recent survey by Gallup, which also reported that 65% of CHROs say AI can improve the performance of most roles in their company.
This may come as a surprise to many people currently instructed to use AI tools in their work. Although the term ‘intelligence’ is in the name, AI language models very clearly have their limitations.
Yes, AI can produce text, visuals, and audio, but the quality of these is still inconsistent.
From Homer Simpson convincingly singing Arctic Monkey’s songs to
the lawyer who used Chat GPT in court and cited fake cases, to the tragic case of a
Belgian man taking his own life after a chatbot helped him to develop suicidal thoughts, we are still very much in the Wild West stage of leveraging AI for the better.
AI is still in its relative infancy, and is only as good as it’s programmed to be.
Asked to produce a strategy or a roadmap, it will generate a generic hodgepodge of approaches that have been done before. Some of these will be rock solid, and others less so. Most importantly, what it produces will not be innovative.
As AI reads existing content on the internet, what it produces is inherently derivative. AI cannot think out of the box. However, it is constantly improving and has made vast leaps in the last year, and continues to evolve and have effective uses.
What work can AI be used for?
As large language models (LLMs) are programmed, they are logical and operate without feeling—for now. HR departments have long known the advantages when it comes to screening job applicants based on skills and experience, with mixed and sometimes
biased results.
AI can perform repetitive jobs, including checking for errors; think of Grammarly using generative AI to help customers edit copy.
AI aids faster decision-making. In financial trading, for example, large chunks of data can be analysed in real time, giving human traders intel to make informed decisions faster.
AI identifies patterns. From helping companies understand their customers to market trends, machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and anomalies, making it very useful in both marketing and fraud departments.
How to safeguard your career from AI
1. Upskill in AI
Whether you have technical skills or not, there is a plethora of courses from reputed universities on the subject of AI, both online and in person.
Maybe you are an engineer and you want to learn the technical side of machine learning, or perhaps you are an analyst who would benefit from improving your prompting skills.
Do some research and talk to your boss about the benefits this knowledge will bring to your role, and the wider business, and secure some education budget to fund it.
2. Improve your soft skills
Communication, leadership, collaboration, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork are all skills that will drive your career forward in an AI era.
Focus on building positive relationships in your workplace and wider network, and communicate with compassion and empathy with colleagues.
In your next one-to-one, talk with your manager about informal and formal ways to improve your soft skills.
3. Move to a more senior role
Junior roles often involve more repetitive tasks, including manual spreadsheet work, making them more vulnerable to automation.
When these manual processes are taken over by AI, these roles may be at risk. By moving to a more senior role that involves analysis and critical thinking, you are protecting your job in an AI-driven era.
Start your job search
Is it time for you to level up to a new role? The
Finextra Job Board is constantly updated with exciting roles across multiple sectors and cities. Here are three London-based roles to start with.
ESG News Product Manager, Bloomberg
Bloomberg’s ESG product team is tasked with coordinating product development across the platform and they are hiring an
ESG News Product Manager.
Working with Bloomberg in third-party data, news, and research, this manager will improve ESG news classification and discoverability on the Terminal, create an ESG News Sentiment score product, as well as a Controversies product, using AI for better insights.
Clear success metrics will be outlined and achieved in a business plan developed by the successful candidate.
Ideally, candidates will have 5+ years in an ESG-focused role, experience implementing products end to end, a strategic mindset and an ability to work with AI models.
Check it out here.
.NET Developers, fintech start-up
Several new roles for
.NET Developers are available in an ambitious fintech start-up based in Manchester, with the opportunity to work from home. Experience in .NET, .NET Core/ASP.NET MVC, C# and SQL Server is required, and further training will be provided in additional programming
languages.
Working on a technically challenging project, you will be working on a scalable asset framework that is individualised and currently unrivalled and developing a new application from scratch.
The position comes with a range of benefits including an 8% pension scheme, shares in the company, private healthcare, free time each week to investigate new technologies, and an annual training allowance.
For more on this .Net Developer role, click here.
Senior Software Engineer, Chetwood Financial
Digital bank Chetwood Financial is seeking a
Senior Software Engineer to join a team working on decommissioning the existing lending platform, and building the next generation based on a third-party core banking engine.
The successful candidate will be responsible for leading and coordinating designs, implementations and deliveries, will promote agile ways of working, will collaborate with front-end and mobile developers to design APIs and integrations, as well as supporting
and mentoring engineers.
Strong experience with Python, AWS Serverless applications, Django, Docker, Celery and PostgreSQL are all listed.
Click here to find out more.
Visit the Finextra Jobs Board today to see mid and senior level roles in the UK.