Let’s say you consult with a co-worker, you work together, as a team, and it optimizes work and productivity. But then, one day, the colleague’s abilities surpass yours. The management decides to reduce the workforce because the work has been streamlined. There is simply no need for so many workers doing the same thing. Who will they decide to fire in such a case?
This fear that artificial intelligence will surpass human capabilities and thus eliminate the need for human workers led BCG, Boston Consulting Group and MIT to conduct a study designed to examine the adoption of artificial intelligence and its impact on organizations, teams and employees. The study examined 1,700 employees from organizations from all over the world and found, by and large, that most employees who use artificial intelligence capabilities perceive it as a ‘coworker’ and not as a threat, they derive personal value from it and are 6 times more likely to obtain significant financial benefits – that is, to receive a bonus, promotion or raise .
Right now, there is no difference between truth and lies
In the last decade, the artificial intelligence tools that were used in the business context were those that made it possible to take large databases and use them to generate insights in order to help professionals make decisions in a better way. In recent months, Generative AI, the artificial intelligence that can create something out of nothing, has broken out. “If you take the global workforce, most people need to be either more creative or more efficient. Today there is another player on the field that wasn’t there before and it will definitely have an impact on the labor market,” says Hod Fleischmann, a partner at BCGX, the Boston-based technology body. Consulting Group.
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Hod Fleishman is a partner and VP of innovation and technology at BCG X
(Photo: BCG)
According to him, AI tools will reach all professions in the future. Right now, the reason AI tools are having a major impact on the design, marketing and content professions is an inherent problem with the way this technology works – that it has no layer of truth. Artificial intelligence tools do not differentiate between truth and lies. The potential of artificial intelligence tools for lawyers in drafting documents, for doctors in treatment recommendations is understandable, but at the moment it is impossible to trust the technology completely.
“Today we see the adoption of these tools in the areas of writing text, of fashion, of retail – there are solutions, for example on Alibaba’s websites you need to build a sales page, you can pour in the information, it will bring the images, write the text and even create a video of the product In the end. In these areas it moves very quickly. In other areas it will come,” says Fleischman.
The first employees who are under considerable threat are the creative employees such as designers, content writers, etc. “They need to learn new exercises and so do the knowledge workers who delve deeply into a certain field and built their careers around it,” he says.
Last week, Wired magazine published its rules for using creative artificial intelligence, rules designed to determine when and when the magazine will use artificial intelligence. For example, the magazine announced that it will not publish stories with texts produced using AI unless the production of the text using artificial intelligence is the entire purpose of the story. Also, the magazine stated that it will not publish articles edited using artificial intelligence but will use artificial intelligence to suggest headlines or posts on social networks.
“These magazine rules are like the wagon drivers would have said with the invention of cars that they would only use trucks to transport heavy loads, but for short-term light loads we won’t use them. How much of this has to do with purity and how much of it is the old guild trying to protect itself from technology?” says Fleischman .
Consult with a thousand colleagues at the same time
Tabula announced about a month ago the integration of Chat GPT technology and other Generative AI technologies into their platform with the understanding that the assimilation and use of the new technologies will change the way advertisers create ads and optimize their campaigns. Such technologies are adopted throughout the organization in human resources, development, the legal department, marketing and sales. “To say that my organization is not adopting AI technologies today, end to end, is like saying that we would not have adopted the Internet 20 years ago. Companies that do not use AI simply will not survive,” says Eldad Maniv, President and COO of Tabula.
“Every technological leap in history has led to improved productivity. So, of course, there is a redundancy of certain roles, but on the other hand, new roles are being created, such as Prompt Engineer. We are at the beginning of the journey, and it is difficult to imagine the variety of new roles that AI will create. In short, the revolution of -AI is positive for the job market, the opportunities are infinitely greater than the threats, and it is important to know how to adapt to changes.’
At Stratasys in Israel, the adoption of artificial intelligence enables a rapid overcoming of the English language barrier, an issue that is critical in communication with global customers. Also, company employees use artificial intelligence for thinking and brainstorming. “In my view, every manager should encourage and push his employees to adopt and embrace technology. I strongly encourage my team and employees to be exposed to technology and use it to free up more time for thinking and bring the human added value, for example in creating a strategy. I think it is the duty of managers today to Don’t leave the employees behind,” says Yonatan Schnir, VP of Global Marketing, Stratasys.
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Yonatan Schnir VP of Global Marketing, Stratasys
(Photo: Stratsys)
The optimization of work through artificial intelligence can come at the expense of human workers who will no longer be needed. For example, if today a company employs twenty designers and with the help of artificial intelligence it is possible to reach the same output with only three or five designers, then there is no logic in continuing to employ twenty people. Despite this, all the organizations we checked with that have adopted artificial intelligence tools say there are no plans to reduce staff following the fallout in the foreseeable future.
“The adoption of artificial intelligence tools can later come at the expense of people who are afraid of changes in general and technological changes in particular, but those who do not adopt the technology will actually be left behind and may be irrelevant to their organization.
In terms of the scope of hiring employees, in the short term I think there is no material impact, but in the medium and long term it can certainly have an impact, therefore it is expected that organizations will be leaner, more efficient and more professional,” says Schnir.
In the last eight months, Saiki began to implement the use of artificial intelligence tools as an integral part of the work processes of each of the company’s departments. So, for example, in the field of user experience, they use the visual tools Dall-e and Midjourney to solve problems. “Together with the ChatGPT, we understand the target audience and then look again at the solutions with the visual tools,” says Geva Rosenthal, VP of Innovation and User Experience at the company, “I’m not one of those who are afraid, I’m one of those who understand that this is something that can really help us and I take inspiration, From the industrial design side, it’s like consulting a thousand designers,” he says.
Most employees experience working with AI in a similar way to Rosenthal. In a study conducted by BCG and MIT, about 60% of respondents felt that artificial intelligence tools were like a co-worker. It was also found that employees who use AI in their personal work are 3.4 times more likely to be satisfied with their work compared to employees who do not use artificial intelligence.
Because there is still an issue of reliability, the technology is still expensive and the ethical boundaries of its use have not yet been defined, some professions are in greater danger of being replaced by AI than others. Designers and content writers will have to reinvent themselves in a world where some of their professional abilities are being replaced by artificial intelligence.
In later stages, as the technology develops, artificial intelligence will be more reliable and it will be possible to begin to imagine a scenario in which it replaces the recommendation of a doctor or a lawyer. “Artificial intelligence will not replace doctors, but doctors who adopt artificial intelligence will replace those who do not use it,” says Gur Rashvalev, a partner in the aMoon Foundation, a venture capital fund in the field of medicine and life sciences. “The starting point is that today there is a real shortage of medical professionals and we feel it every day, so the first emphasis is that the adoption of technology, especially of artificial intelligence, contributes significantly to expanding the capabilities of doctors and medical teams so that they can be more efficient. Therefore, we do not expect that there will be Fewer doctors because the challenges are enormous and the demand is very high.”
In the context of medicine, we are talking about artificial intelligence, which primarily enables the examination of huge amounts of data and the generation of insights. “Doctors sometimes make mistakes not because they haven’t seen the data, but as a result that they are often influenced by biases, previous thought patterns, searching for a certain element. For example, if I made a mistake with the last patient in a certain aspect, I will constantly look for that mistake even though it may Irrelevant to the next patient and distracts me. Artificial intelligence helps us dramatically in diagnosis because it looks at the data cleanly, and beyond that can look for patterns that doctors cannot discern.
This is an example and proof that it does not replace the doctors but helps them better understand what and how to treat,” says Rushvalev.
In a similar way, lawyers will probably not be completely replaced by technology, but yes, it will significantly change the profession. “In the long term, we anticipate that technology combined with the needs of our clients will change the common business model in the field of law. The hourly pricing model will change and lawyers will actually price the added value they give to the client, the smart solution to the challenge of a transaction, in addition to the relatively cheap work that will be done by A machine and only with a marginal addition of a human factor. Actions that are already today at least partly performed by a machine,” says Anat Ben Baruch, VP of Business Development at Sheblat Lawyers.
Already today, AI technologies designed to assist legal work are being implemented at the law firm. “In practice, there is a considerable part of the lawyers’ work that is essentially bureaucratic and technical, and a smart tool can help to do it in an efficient and agile way. This leaves much more time for learning, mentoring and professionalization on the legal or business side,” says Tamar Harmati, Innovation Manager at Shablat.
The question of whether technology has the potential to replace human workers comes up every time, and when it comes to artificial intelligence, it’s about capabilities that most of us couldn’t imagine just a few years ago. The simple answer to this question is yes, artificial intelligence can replace some of the workers, but at the same time it can be said that new professions will be created and those who learn to use the new tools to improve their work, its efficiency or professionalism, will continue to remain relevant and even more so, according to BCG and MIT research Even expected to earn more and be more satisfied with his work.
“The AI can replace people in certain fields such as graphics, product design, marketing writing and especially short writing to describe a product or marketing. Any topic where the information that exists on the web leads you to the right conclusions and that is without emotion or a personal element. There the human element is especially important to supervise. We are not yet at the point where the machine completely replaces a human being. At the same time, the involvement of the regulator is necessary to pay attention to the extent to which the machine is allowed to work independently, as in the worlds of medicine, aviation, and automobiles. In China, for example, the contents of a machine should be marked as such. In light of bad effects of fake news, it is important to pay attention, as in everything, that it serves good purposes,” says Eyal Niv, a partner in the Pitango venture capital fund, which invests in companies in the field of artificial intelligence.
The creator understood, Generative AI, is the beginning of the third wave of this in the development of graphic models and mechanical models – that’s where we’re going and it will replace the people.”