Despite all the fear mongering around the “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) Technologies, they can’t be wished away.
While some jobs will indeed become redundant, more opportunities are bound to open up in new areas.
What is AI and what is the threat related to it?
AI is the intelligence demonstrated by machines which are programmed to continuously ‘learn’, and mimic cognitive human functions.
AI has already started impacting our lives and services like – “Voice-based searches in smart phones and Self-driven cars are already a reality”.
Gartner’s “Technology hype cycle” has predicted mainstream adoption of AI to take off over the next 2-5 years on a massive scale.
India currently holds a dominating position in the global services trade by virtue of its large youthful workforce.
But many noted economist have warned that ‘AI systems’ and the consequent employment cuts could steal India’s demographic thunder.
Will it wipe out the IT Industry?
It is a fact that AI-based bots have already taken away some jobs in the IT industry and this trend is expected to continue for a while.
But we will still need people to monitor and maintain automated systems and a phase of sustained co-existence will eventually be reached.
We will therefore ultimately end up with a more engaged and motivated workforce that would perform critical tasks rather than mundane activities.
Additionally, historically, evolving technology has always been a net job creator and humans and machines have usually thrived and declined together.
Hence, AI is also likely to create more jobs than it would destroy if the environment to foster innovation is nurtured.
Notably, when computer made its foray into workspaces some 3 decades ago, the same fears of a technology takeover of jobs was expressed.
But the down the lane, while computers have enhanced efficiency and reduced manual labour, newer opportunities that didn’t exist before have opened up.
How are the expected trends in employment?
New Skills - A Gartner’s report predicts that by 2020, automation will create 2.3 million jobs, while only 1.8 million jobs will be lost.
To capitalise on these opportunities and wade through the disruptive technologies, the IT workforce needs reskilling/upskilling to stay relevant.
By demonstrating the right attitude, individuals can adapt by garnering more domain knowledge and developing analytical skills.
The industry and other support organisations need to promote such skill development programs for their own growth and for the larger benefits.
Uberisation - Uberisation of workforce simply indicates freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs (like the taxi aggregator’s model).
With experts being hired on need basis for specific tasks and various projects being outsourced to individuals, this trend is gaining popularity.
Organisations are warming up to the concept of remote workers, who can be contracted from anywhere on the planet, without any binding control.
Such flexi working ecosystems is clearly the future and the workforce too needs to stay abreast with these developments to monetize on them.
It is to be noted that contracted workers may be working for more than one organisation simultaneously.
What are reforms needed in the ed-sector?
About 8 lakh students pass out of the nearly 3000 engineering colleges in the country, and an astounding 55% aspire for a job in the software industry.
But shockingly only a mere 3% of them are equipped with skills needed for the job, which is partly due to lacklustre industry-academia collaboration.
In order to evolve an IT workforce that can be future-proofed, we need to enhance industry collaboration through internships and other engagements.
The sheer volume of the pass-outs is also a big hindrance and better curbs to hinder proliferation of substandard colleges in the domain could help.
