The New Era of Work: How Authentic Thinking Will Redefine Success in the Age of AI
by Jamie Farnell-Smith
"The pace of progress in artificial intelligence is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast - it is growing at a pace close to exponential."
Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous in our lives. From Siri, Alexa and Google Home to self-driving cars, AI has started to disrupt almost every industry we can think of, promising to revolutionise the way we live, learn and work. In previous generations disruption triggered by progress tended to disproportionately impact on lower value professions but this time around it's different. In the age of AI nearly every profession will experience some form of digital disruption and my contention is that as this happens it is inevitable that we will see an exponential increase in demand for authentic thinking and creativity that curates the curiosity that will drive innovation. As someone once said, computers have memory but no imagination, and in the age of AI this will become increasingly important. I was reflecting on this recently when reading ‘The AI Classroom’ by Dan Fitzpatrick, Amanda Fox and Brad Weinstein.
In a world where machines can process and analyse data far faster than humans as well as automating so many tasks it would be easy to assume that in some cases jobs may be at risk, and in some cases they will be. This is nothing new of course, progress has been displacing and disrupting the way things have always been done right up until a better way of doing it appears. People used to knock on doors to wake people up in the morning before the alarm clock and people used to walk in front of cars when they only had one gear. What’s happening now is nothing new in terms of disruption and just as throughout history the future will belong to those best capable of adapting. For those who try to ban AI or fight against it well, history has shown where the casualties will be. My contention is that as machines take over more routine tasks (ever met anyone who loves to spend all day on email or writing minutes? Me neither…), it will create more room for humans to focus on more creative and intellectual work. The ability to think critically, ask intelligent questions and explore new ideas will become more valuable than ever before. The age of AI will usher in the age of creativity also, what the late Sir Ken Robinson termed ‘original ideas that have value’.
As we look to the future, we can already see how AI is likely to increasingly disrupt specific industries. For example, in the financial sectors, AI is used to manage investment portfolios. In healthcare, AI is being used to analyse medical images and make diagnoses. In education, AI-powered digital assistants are with us and helping students with their studies as well as educators to reduce time spent on admin tasks that take them away from teaching. The possibilities are endless, and as AI continues to evolve, it will create opportunities for new products and services and with it, new jobs. This means that businesses will need to invest in building their own AI capabilities to stay competitive in the market and specifically the people with the skills to apply the AI tools at their disposal in a way that has an impact that creates value.
As machines take over more tasks, it's essential that humans become experts in asking intelligent, well defined academically rigorous questions. If we don’t get this right then AI tools can deliver flawed outputs or in a worst case outputs that are just wrong. As Seth Godin, bestselling author and entrepreneur, says, "In a world where everyone has access to the same tools, how you use them is what matters most." It's not just about the tools we have, but how we use them to ask the right questions and come up with original ideas that have value to use the words of Sir Ken Robinson.
The rise of AI will undoubtedly change the way we live, learn and work, disrupting industries and creating new opportunities on the way. However, it will also create a greater demand for authentic thinking and place a greater emphasis on the role of curating curiosity. As technology becomes more advanced, the value will be created by those who can ask intelligent questions and define original ideas before asking machines to make it happen.
As Tolkien once said, “The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out”. It's time to embrace the future and start building our own AI-smart capabilities.
Author Profile: Jamie Farnell-Smith is co-founder of Staffordshire Digital and Exec Chair C-Learning, Director Delling Cloud, Co-Founder S24, Director/Trustee AAT, and Trustee of the Friends of Staffordshire Army Cadet Force.
