AI to Drive Massive Innovation and Create More Jobs: IEEE Expert
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will probably not make human workers obsolete, at least not for a long time. Rather, AI will continue to drive massive innovation that will fuel many existing industries and could have the potential to create many new sectors for growth, ultimately leading to the creation of more jobs, believes, Sukanya Mandal, IEEE Member and Founder and Data Science Professional.
At IEEE’s recent virtual round table focused on ‘The Next Big Things in Technology’, Mandal explained, “AI and ML are creating strides for technological advancements and will be extremely vital for our future to increase output, bring specialization into job roles, and increase the importance of “human skills” such as problem-solving, quantitative skills, and creativity.”
Quoting a recent paper published by the MIT Task Force titled: “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work,” Mandal said that AI is becoming standard for all businesses, not just in the world of technology. Sectors such as healthcare, automotive and retail/e-commerce, AI is already playing a pivotal role.
The report highlights that AI continues to push large-scale innovation, create more jobs, advance labor processes, and holds the immense potential to impact various sectors.
AI and machine learning having such far-reaching impacts across many industries, these technologies are the most important skills in today’s job market. Hence, for those looking to up skill in their career, or looking to gain a competitive edge at the job market, AI is a great place to focus your energy on.
“With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic where digitization and technology have become increasingly powerful drivers for innovation, IEEE curated this round table to discuss how AI, ML, and advanced security mechanisms are fueling industries to drastically increase productivity, automate systems to achieve better accuracy, and help workforce outperform while minimizing tedious repetitive tasks,” Mandal said.
She added that AI-driven learning systems are generating more opportunities for intertwining technology trends which will only continue in 2022 and beyond.
“Industry 4.0 is all about interconnecting machines, processes, and systems for maximum process optimization. Along the same lines, Industry 5.0 will be focused on the interaction between humans and machines. It is all about recognizing human expertise and creatively interconnecting with machine intelligence for process optimization,” said she.
According to her, “It is true to say that we are not far away from the 5th industrial revolution. Over this decade and the next, we will witness applications of IoT and smart systems adhering to the principles of the 5th industrial revolution across various sectors.”
While AI has made major strides in replicating the efficacy of human intelligence in the executing certain tasks, there are still major limitations. In particular, AI programs are typically only capable of “specialized” intelligence, meaning they can solve only one problem, and execute only one task at a time. Often, they can be rigid, and unable to respond to any changes in input, or perform any “thinking” outside of their prescribed programming.
Needless to mention then the true potential of AI in the enterprise lies in using it as a collaboration tool with humans. That would not only efficiently execute tasks but also transform what businesses actually do. So, while smart chat bots can seamlessly interact with customers and process customer’s request, based on the information the chat bots can gather, human agents are better prepared to offer assistance and improve the experience. Success will depend on how leaders can weave the Al building blocks together to set a course for their company’s future.
