On LinkedIn there is a wilde debate about new figures concerning the labor market and massive lay off due to generative AI this year.
Maybe you have read this bold headline:
25% of CEOs intend to lay off 5% or more of their employees in 2024 due to generative AI.
The release of these statistics by the World Economic Forum (hashtagWEF) in Davos is attributed to a survey conducted by PwC consultants, which involved close to 4,000 executives at the C-suite level from leading corporations. A significant point to note is that “… around 25% of chief executives foresee a decrease in their workforce by a minimum of 5% in 2024, as a consequence of advancements in generative AI.”
You can find more information about this poll here e.g. https://lnkd.in/ehx4apiW
This sounds really frightening. But, here is the point, this is only half of the truth.
In recent decades, new technologies such as the internet have led to fewer jobs (travel agents) and new ones (online community managers) being created at the same time. And this happened also really fast. Just as 100 years ago when direct dial telephone led to massive lay offs of suffragettes. But who wants that time back when you had to wait for minutes to make a domestic phone call?
This estimate from Davos says nothing at all about how the labor market is changing in net terms. This figure says nothing at all.
We could assume that it will take years on the other side of the scale to build new jobs based on generative AI. But why? We see a tremendous impact of AI also on education and skill building. There is no reason to not trust in our ability to leverage these technologies.
What does it take to stay ahead for us as the human workforce?
🔸 First and foremost: We have to master AI and to decide who we are. As an author, for instance, you could ask yourself: Am I somebody who knows about good texts or am I a text producer?
🔸 We should ask ourselves how we can leverage AI in our day to day tasks.
What is your point of view? What can we do to stay ahead?
I am keen to know your standpoint in the comments.