[colabot1]
As if there weren’t enough layoff fears in the tech industry already, add ChatGPT to the list of worker concerns, reflecting the advancement of this artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that is making its way onto work place.
So far this year, the tech industry has already cut 5% more jobs than in 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The layoff rate is on track to surpass job loss figures from 2001, the worst year for tech layoffs due to the dot-com meltdown.
As layoffs continue to mount, workers are not only afraid of being fired, they are afraid of being replaced all together. A recent Goldman Sachs report revealed that 300 million jobs worldwide could be affected by AI and automation.
But ChatGPT and AI shouldn’t instill fear among employees, as these tools will help people and businesses work more efficiently, according to Sultan Saidov, co-founder and chairman of Beamery, a global workforce management software company. human capital as a service, which has its own GPT, or pre-trained generative transformer, called TalentGPT.
“It is already estimated that 300 million jobs are going to be impacted by AI and automation,” Saidov said. “The question is, does that mean these people are going to change jobs or lose their jobs? I think in many cases that’s going to be changed rather than lost.”
ChatGPT is a type of GPT tool that uses learning models to generate human-like responses, and Saidov says GPT technology can help workers do more than just have conversations. Especially in the tech industry, specific jobs are likely to be affected more than others.
Creatives and designers should embrace AI skills
Saidov points to creatives in the tech industry, like designers, video game creators, photographers and those who create digital images, as those whose jobs are unlikely to be completely eradicated. This will help those roles create more and get their jobs done faster, he said.
“If you think back to the Industrial Revolution, when you suddenly had automation in agriculture, did that mean fewer people were going to do certain jobs in agriculture?” said Saidov. “Certainly, because you won’t need as many people in this field, but that just means the same number of people go to different jobs.”
Much like similar trends in history, creative jobs will be in demand after the widespread inclusion of generative AI and other AI technologies in the workplace.
“With video game creators, if the number of games created in the world doesn’t change from year to year, you’ll probably need fewer game designers,” Saidov said. “But if you can create more as a company, this technology will only increase the number of games you can create.”
Software developers and engineers will be impacted
Due to the ChatGPT buzz, many software developers and engineers fear for their job security, leading some to seek new skills and learn how to design generative AI and add these skills to their resume.
“It’s unfair to say that GPT will completely eliminate jobs, like developers and engineers,” says Sameer Penakalapati, chief executive of Ceipal, an AI-based talent acquisition platform.
But while those jobs will still exist, their duties and responsibilities could likely be reduced by GPT and generative AI.
There’s an important distinction to be made between GPT in particular and generative AI more broadly when it comes to the job market, according to Penakalapati. GPT is a mathematical or statistical model designed to learn patterns and provide results. But other forms of generative AI can go further, reconstructing different outcomes based on patterns and learnings, and almost mirroring a human brain, he said.
As an example, Penakalapati says that if you look at software developers, engineers, and testers, GPT can generate code in seconds, giving software users and customers exactly what they need without having to relay needs, adaptations and correctives. to the development team. GPT can do the work of a coder or tester instantly, rather than the days or weeks it takes a human to generate the same thing, he said.
Generative AI can have a broader impact on software engineers, and specifically devops (development and operations) engineers, Penakalapati said, from developing code to deploying, maintaining and updating the software development. Within this broader set of tasks, generative AI can mimic what an engineer would do throughout the development cycle.
As development and engineering roles quickly adapt to these tools in the workplace, Penakalapati said it would be impossible for tools to completely replace humans. More likely, we will see a decrease in the number of developers and engineers needed to create software.
“Whether you’re writing a piece of code, testing how users interact with your software, or designing software and choosing certain colors from a color palette, you’ll always need someone, a human, to help in the process,” Penakalapati said.
Knowledge workers could benefit from ChatGPT
While GPT and AI will have a big impact on more roles than others, the incorporation of these tools will impact every knowledge worker, commonly referred to as anyone who uses or manages information in their work, according to Michael Chui, McKinsey Global Institute partner.
“These technologies make it possible to create first drafts very quickly, of all kinds of different things, whether it’s writing, generating computer code, creating images, videos and music,” said Chui. “You can imagine that almost any knowledge worker can benefit from this technology and certainly the technology offers speed with these types of capabilities.”
A recent study by OpenAIthe creator of ChatGPT, found that about 80% of the American workforce could see at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of learning models in GPT technology, while about 19 % of workers could see 50% of their tasks affected. .
Chui said workers today don’t remember a time when they didn’t have tools like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word, so in a way we can predict that workers in the future will not be able to imagine a world of work without AI Tools and GPT.
“Even technologies that have dramatically increased productivity in the past haven’t necessarily led to fewer people at work,” Chui said. “At the end of the day, the world will always need more software.”