The jobs AI won't take yet

Artificial Intelligence is yet to take over all human jobs. There are some tasks that AI is not capable of – jobs that require human attributes such as emotional intelligence and the ability to think creatively.

The risk of being replaced can be reduced by focusing on the skills that make you unique, reads an article published by BBC.

New technologies, from mechanised looms to microchips, have been met with fears that they will replace humans in the workplace ever since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The human race has, by and large, won this war. Some analysts claim that the threat is becoming a reality as widespread AI becomes a reality in the near future.

Goldman Sachs predicted that by 2023, artificial intelligence capable of content generation would be able to perform 25 percent of the human workforce's present workload. The paper adds that in the United States and the European Union, 300 million jobs might be lost due to automation. Martin Ford, author of Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything, warns that this development could have catastrophic consequences.

"It's not just that this would happen to individuals, but it could be pretty systemic," he says. "It could happen to a lot of people, potentially quite suddenly, potentially all at the same time. And that has implications not just for those individuals, but for the whole economy."

"I think there are generally three categories that are going to be relatively insulated in the foreseeable future," says Ford. "The first would be jobs that are genuinely creative – you're not doing formulaic work or just rearranging things, but you're genuinely coming up with new ideas and building something new."

That doesn't mean that all jobs that are thought of as "creative" are risk-free. In fact, graphic design and other art-related jobs may be the first to go. A simple algorithm can tell a bot to look at millions of pictures, which gives AI an instant grasp of how things look. But there's some security in other kinds of creativity, says Ford. "In science, and medicine and law … people whose job is coming up with a new legal strategy or business strategy. I think that there's going to continue to be a place there for human beings". 

He goes on to say that jobs that require complex relationships with other people are also protected. He gives the examples of nurses, business advisers, and reporters who look into things. He says, "These are jobs where you need to know a lot about people. I don't think AI will be able to engage in ways that really build relationships for a long time.

The third safe zone, says Ford, "are jobs that really require lots of mobility and dexterity and problem-solving ability in unpredictable environments". Many trade jobs – think electricians, plumbers, welders and the like – fall under this umbrella. "These are the kinds of jobs where you're dealing with a new situation all the time," he adds. "They are probably the hardest of anything to automate. In order to automate jobs like this, you would need a science fiction robot. You'd need Star Wars's C-3PO."

While humans will likely remain in jobs that fall within those categories, that doesn't mean those professions are totally insulated from the ascent of AI. In fact, says Joanne Song McLaughlin, associate professor of labour economics at the University of Buffalo, US, most jobs, regardless of industry, have aspects that are likely to be automated by the technology.

"In many cases, there's no immediate threat to jobs," she says, "but tasks will change." Human jobs will become more focused on interpersonal skills, continues Song McLaughlin. "It's easy to imagine that, for instance, AI will detect cancers way better than humans could. In the future, I'm assuming doctors will use that new technology. But I don't think the doctor's whole role will be replaced."

While a robot may ostensibly do a better job of finding cancer, she says, most people will still want a doctor – a real person – to be the one to tell them about it. That's true of almost all jobs, she adds, and so developing those distinctly human skills could help people learn to do their jobs alongside AI.

"I think it's smart to really think, 'what kind of tasks within my job will be replaced, or will be better done by computer or AI? And what's my complementary skill?'" She points to bank tellers, who once had to be very accurate money counters. Now, that task has been automated – but there's still a place for the teller.  "The task of money counting became obsolete because of a machine," she says. "But now, the tellers are more focused on connecting with customers and introducing new products. The social skill has become more important." 

It's important to note, says Ford, that an advanced education or a high-paying position is not a defence against AI takeover. "We might think the person in the white-collar job is higher on the food chain than someone who drives a car for a living," he says. "But the white-collar employee's future is more threatened by the Uber driver, because we still don't have self-driving cars, but AI can certainly write reports. In many cases, more educated workers are going to be more threatened than then even the least educated workers. Think of the person that works cleaning hotel rooms – it's really hard to automate that job." 

In short, looking for employment in dynamic, moving contexts with unpredictable responsibilities is an excellent method to avoid job loss due to AI. At least for the time being.