Bill Gates recently published a 5,784-word warning that AI will reshape employment faster than any previous technology or industrial transition, and that no one is preparing for it. He is among many people currently cautioning the world about AI.
He is right about the disruption, but will it all be negative?
We have seen transitions like this many times in the past; The Industrial Revolution(s), the first generations of computerization, e-Commerce and more. Disruption is common to major advances that man continually makes.
But every transition, advancement, or disruption is driven forward by those that see the change as a strategic commercial advantage for them and those that join them. History has emphasized just how right they were both in the advantages created by the new technology and their choice to be early adopters.
Driving forward into implementation of new technologies takes commitment and hard work. For example, Lean Manufacturing did not come about from a casual conversation among a few Japanese businessmen in the 1950s. It took years to work through the concepts and to advance them one step at a time. In fact, one of the key concepts in Lean Manufacturing is “Constant Change and Adaptation”. Advancement comes through understanding the current foundational elements of the new technology and addressing the next set of problems and issues required to improve the process.
Digitalization, including incorporating AI into current work processes, is a human endeavor, and it takes people working together, each committed to implementing the changes required at their level, to achieve the next step in the advancement.
Those that adopt new technology gain Commercial Strategic Advantage over those that don’t. In other words, they become the new winners and the previous leaders, who did not change, become the new losers.
So, does advancing into digitalization mean everyone loses their job? That’s not what has happened before. The winners gain business, quite often a lot more business, and need more workers. Look at Nike, Meta, or Amazon in their prime.
Most importantly, the new winners will use critical thinking, in conjunction with aggressive learning, to find, design, modify, and deploy a fully digital process.
One of the big messages to workers whose work is at risk: embrace what’s coming, get in the middle of it by aggressively looking how to learn about it. Talk with management about how to create a strategic advantage that is commercial, lets you gain business from customers looking for those that are at the vanguard of the revolution.
These will be the people gaining more interesting jobs with much higher compensation.
