How AI might affect your job?

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IBM Training & Skills conducted the fourth in our series of experimental Twitter chats on September 12th about “How AI might affect your job”. Our first, in April, focused on “Which skills are essential in the modern workplace”, our second, in May, was about achieving eminence in your workplace, and our third, in July, focused on cybersecurity.

We were joined by a few experts from IBM for our conversation:
• Armen Pischdotchian, Global University Relations
• Joseph Kozhaya, Watson and Cloud Adoption Leader
• Stephen Choquette, Watson Offering Manager for Strategic Partnerships

We asked six questions about careers in cybersecurity (and have highlighted a few of the responses:

Q1: Is AI going to kill jobs?
• Is AI going to kill jobs? No. Every indication shows AI will create significant net new jobs.
• Robots ‘are here to give us a promotion,’ not take away jobs, @Gartner says in report back in 2017: https://gtnr.it/2LQdzQs #AI is an opportunity and not a threat, but we do need to prepare for it https://ibm.co/2UcEaLn

Q2: How will AI change the way we work?
• Leading organizations are planning to adopt AI in the workplace, some in the form of virtual personal assistants, speech recognition, machine learning, and natural language processing – see: https://elearningindustry.com/artificial-intelligence-in-workplace-role-shaping-future
• How will AI change work? 85% of Jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet

Q3: What skills will be needed in the future?

• An interesting study just published today by @burning_glass and @BCG shows skills needed by flagship, fast-growing, high-growth, modest-growth and declining jobs. A combination of technical, business and soft skills will be needed. https://on.bcg.com/2LLpoHD

Q4: Who will be affected the most by AI’s appearance in the workplace?
• The World Economic Forum states that there will be 133 million new jobs, many in new roles, 75 million jobs eliminated and 54% of existing employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling http://bit.ly/2Do2DbK
• AI will affect employees at all levels and in different ways. Adopting AI will help improve the functionality of the workplace by focusing on high value activities.

Q5: How should employers prepare for the “rise of the robots” (AI in the workplace)?
• How will employers prepare for #AI? Reskilling is going to be massive. https://gulfnews.com/world/robots-displacing-jobs-means-120-million-workers-need-retraining-1.1567761354074

• How will employers prepare for #AI? Contract work is going to grow. Between 50-66% of employers are likely to turn to external contractors, temporary staff and freelancers to address their skills gaps. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf

• According to a survey done by @accenture Employers need to 1) Reimagine work 2) Pivot the workforce to new areas 3) Scale upskilling and reskilling initiatives https://www.accenture.com/t20180613t062119z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/pdf-69/accenture-reworking-the-revolution-jan-2018-pov.pdf#zoom=50
• Employers should skill up their workforce to help them adopt and leverage AI. A key business driver for AI is improving the productivity of the workforce by automating mundane tasks and preserve enterprise expert knowledge. https://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/how-artificial-intelligence-increases-business-productivity-02059942#targetText=According%20to%20a%20study%20by,up%20valuable%20time%20for%20employees

Q6: How can you personally prepare for the “rise of the robots” (AI in the workplace)?
• Know what employers will be looking for, what’s trending. Consider 1st course in #AI learning journey. Understand what’s possible from a tech view. Map your plan, how AI will apply to your current and next jobs. Then fill in the gaps.
• How can you prep for AI? Develop your uniquely human skills, like creativity, originality, analytical thinking and innovation. Keep tech skills current, then earn #openbadges to signal your capabilities. https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/youll-need-this-1-skill-to-keep-your-job-when-ai-takes-over.html
• In the words of @tomfriedman “In this age of accelerations, everyone is going to have to raise their game in the classroom and for their whole lifetime” We need to become #lifelonglearners and hone digital, business and human skills

Watch for future opportunities to engage with us @IBMTraining on Twitter