Rush rush rush and if you blink, you might miss it. The world is rapidly changing right before our eyes. While the first industrial revolution from 1760 saw a global transition from agrarian and handicraft economies to machine-driven, industrial, and urban societies took a full 80 years. But the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is happening at lightning speed in comparison.
There are diverging opinions on whether the labour market will be able to catch up to the rapid rate of change and anticipated massive job losses. In the industrial revolution, workers and manufacturing plant owners had decades to prepare, adjust, and catch-up. But will today’s modern workers be able to bounce back and adapt?
At the recently held Annual Organisation Development Roundtable hosted by USIU-Africa, SNDBX Founder and CEO Joram Mwinamo warned that professionals should not be alarmist.
He predicted that many jobs will be created as a result of AI and many such types of careers are not even imagined yet. The computer and internet transition created millions of jobs and AI should not be different.
However, this stands in contrast to famous AI naysayer Bill Gates who predicts that the rate of improvement with AI has already all but wiped-out computer programmers but soon will completely replace most accountants, lawyers, and so on and so on to different professions.
The United States city of Chicago already has a primary and secondary school with no teachers. AI teaches the students and the adult humans at the school are more like emotional wellbeing coaches.
Grace Mandela, Head of Legal and Administration at Farmer’s Choice, stressed the continued need for human connection and networking as the AI revolution takes full force. We must focus on impact and differentiation.
Joram also spoke about the shocking rate of change in the world has created an environment whereby companies are having to update their strategies every year or half-year since predictions year-over-year are now not possible.
JIWE Studios CEO Max Musau stated how the rates of change in technology even beyond AI will only continue to accelerate and that firms across East Africa need to become more agile and swift in responding to the constant winds of change.
Organisation Development Consultant Daniel Karori agreed with the changes but also explained how utilising AI is not just a matter of random usage of large language models, but a matter of training a specific model over time to fit with one’s business needs and localise the AI analysis.
He highlighted how many consulting firms are using AI for uploading mounds of data and then receiving analysis, but the big recommendations given to client firms still have to originate from experienced professional human thought. There will still be roles for highly trained professionals.
Human Resources Expert Cynthia Mburugu explained how numerous firms now use AI to filter job applicants.
But it is not as much large language models for filtering, but often specialised software that is underpinned by AI. Yet one can still be distinct in the market, use connections, and actively pursue referrals.
Patrick Forscher, Senior Behavioural Scientist at Busara in Nairobi, delved into cutting-edge research on behavioural science and its role on improving humanitarian development. He also highlighted the role of bias among AI large language models and the errors they generate especially in developing country contexts.
There also exist ethical issues with the use of large language models built by big firms with highly questionable business practices. Yet there are excellent open-source ethical AI platforms that hardly anyone talks about.
In short, AI is changing the professional world, but we can adapt, integrate, and stay ahead of the curve.