Instead of hiring more people to fill their empty work spots, many companies may turn to AI in the coming years. They will be looking at factors like productivity, profitability, and all the other aspects that make them choose one human worker over another at the moment. How will humans stack up against the artificial intelligence competition? Who will companies choose for jobs where either one would be capable of performing the tasks at some level?
Productivity
Let’s start with a very interesting point of comparison. Some people can be very productive and get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. AI, however, can be continuously productive, creating content and doing work when humans are getting rest. There is no comparison when it comes to how productive the two sets of candidates are, as AI blows humanity out of the water, but it isn’t all about the numbers. That said, there are limits to what AI can do. It may be able to do some tasks endlessly, but it cannot perform all the same tasks as humans. There will still be a need for humans in many sectors, no matter how good AI becomes.
Quality
The amount of content produced or tasks done mean nothing if the work is done poorly. Who would hire a hardworking incompetent, for example? Not most companies, and that is the same problem they run into with AI. Yes, these programs are getting smarter all the time, but there are still a lot of restrictions as to what kinds of tasks they can do. In many cases, people can tell when the work is being done by a computer program. Companies will have to consider if they are meeting their customers’ needs by producing AI content or if human content creation is still required.
Most AI work is relegated to digital content, like video, art, music, and writing. These programs can be used in some physical tasks, but they simply cannot operate all of the machines and tools that humans can at this point. You may never see AI-generated house cleaners like ImagineMaids or robotic lawncare, and if we do ever see these, they are likely very far in our future.
Commitment
Who will be more committed to the work that needs to be done? Humans can pledge commitment and loyalty, but who can say how long that promise will hold? They may find a better job opportunity later on that leads them away from the company. Committed, loyal employees are very valuable to businesses, though, and these are the kind of people they are looking for but may rarely find.
AI, on the other hand, can be programmed to be committed. The artificial intelligence software can be made to stick with a project until it is done and work for the company as long as necessary. The only problem with AI when it comes to commitment is that some of these programs are proprietary and may only be available for certain tasks or for a limited time. There may be issues with viruses and technical glitches that prevent the AI from staying committed to the task they are assigned as well.
Companies are certainly attracted to the idea of employees that will always be loyal, though, even if they are AI-generated.
Innovation
This is one area where AI would seem to fall far short of human capabilities. Humans are able to be endlessly innovative, and they can come up with new ideas every day. That doesn’t mean they always do that, and some people are better at innovation than others. Still, if your business thrives on new ideas and thinking outside the box, you will need to have human employees to lead the way.
AI employees can only go as far as their programming allows, right? Well, the beauty of artificial intelligence is that it is learning and trying to do new things. These programs can be fed so much information that they can come up with things that seem like new ideas. They can combine all of their input into various ways that produce combinations that have never been seen before. People are enthralled right now with AI-generated art and videos, and the novelty may wear off in time. However, these programs are getting smarter all the time, and the limits on their innovation at this moment may not be there in a few years.
Profitability
The bottom line will always be important to businesses, and human employees will always cost companies money every month. There is no way around that, but the question that businesses are starting to ask themselves is whether it costs less to have an AI program do the work compared to a human.
AI technology is becoming far cheaper with each passing year. What used to be prohibitively expensive is now available to most people. Now, to use this technology at a business level on a regular basis will be a bit expensive, but not nearly as expensive as it would be to hire human employees to do a lot of the same work.
Businesses will need to weigh all of the cost factors, though, and look at more than just payday. Will using AI to generate content and do tasks hurt the bottom line because of a lack of innovation or quality? For some businesses, the answer to that would be yes, but not all of them. AI programming holds a lot of value for business owners looking to save some money, and it will likely become even more cost effective in the coming years.
It is evident that artificial intelligence is going to take some jobs from people, but where that happens will be determined by businesses that are weighing the different factors we have talked about here. Not all of them will come to the same conclusions. One thing is for certain, though- the workplace is about to get a lot more competitive.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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