For Kathy Polimeni, a career at Penn involves constant adaptation.
After choosing writing as a career, she continued to hone her skills, and when work at print magazines began to decline, she shifted her focus to freelance editing work.
But the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has brought new disruption to her work life in recent years.
AI tools are making career planning difficult and are already displacing jobs. (ABC: Jarrod Fankauser)
“Those freelance roles are [disappeared] I started looking for work again because I was working with a major client,” says Kathy.
The online job alerts she set up for editorial work were not encouraging.
“Eighty percent of the roles that come back… [for] correct a mistake made by [AI] language models,” she says.
”For me it’s, why do you train yourself to ignore relevance?”
She was one of hundreds of people who responded to the ABC’s call last month asking readers to share how AI is impacting their work.
Respondents at various career stages, from college students to workers nearing retirement, shared concerns about AI’s ability to replicate hard-earned skills.
They included students and workers pursuing careers in white-collar jobs that were considered promising just a few years ago.
While some were enthusiastic about how AI could take some of the burden off of time-consuming and repetitive tasks, others worried that AI was leading to a decline in entry-level roles for entry-level employees.
Other respondents are looking for a new job or considering a career change because their employer has introduced AI.
And many were yet to understand the impact AI would have on their careers.
Kathy is adjusting as her career as a writer continues to change. (ABC News: Jillian Aelia)
Kathy isn’t entirely sure if her former clients replaced their jobs with AI, but what she does know is that their jobs started disappearing at the same time AI started to permeate business.
And her doubts and questions are the same as those of many people who contacted ABC.
“We have been working on these [skills] our whole life. How can they be used? And are they still needed in this new world? ” says Kathy.
Hallucinations, translation, and AI “failures”
AI is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in workplaces across Australia.
According to the federal government’s National AI Center, 40% of small businesses have implemented AI.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that 84% of Australian “knowledge workers” (those who typically work at a desk) are already using generative AI in the field.
Greg Bamber, a professor at Monash University Business School who researches AI and the future of work, says, “Many are BYO-AI users and are adopting it ahead of formal organizational rollout.”
Some workers experimenting with AI told the ABC that it has made some parts of their jobs easier.
Andy (not his real name) from Tasmania says it helps him maintain the right tone when writing emails.
“Maybe it was a little hot” [AI tool] Copilot is great at helping me stay out of HR meetings,” he says.
But some complained that the technology added to their workload.
Some say their current work involves correcting AI errors and misinformation, known as “hallucinations,” or processing bland, low-quality AI summaries known as “slop.”
“I now spend hours each week responding to, editing, and revising AI output provided by others in my organization, much like the French teacher who was grading Google Translate essays in 2008,” says Thomas, from Victoria.
Artificial intelligence and large-scale language models are increasingly integrated into workplaces and critical infrastructure. (ABC: Jarrod Fankauser)
Other employees were concerned that AI automation would replace tasks and diminish their roles.
“I’m not looking forward to my future job search,” says Catriona from New South Wales.
”Given that nearly every industry is desperately trying to wring out the unpredictable, chaotic human element and replace it with more pleasant, if hallucination-prone chatbots.”
Although AI is known to sometimes give incorrect responses, there are undoubtedly many tasks it can perform more accurately and faster than humans.
And employers are looking for ways to leverage their ability to quickly summarize large amounts of information, create emails, reports, job ads, fill out forms, and perform repetitive tasks.
Bamber says this means AI could be able to perform tasks that white-collar workers have long performed, such as legal research, copywriting, software development and customer support.
“The occupations and jobs most likely to be replaced are routine screen-based jobs. [and] It’s a lot of text and numbers,” he says.
Some of the jobs exposed to AI are commonly held by Australian immigrants, such as IT and accounting.
Meanwhile, experts also say that jobs such as basic translation could be replaced by AI.
Rana, a highly qualified Arabic translator, predicts that within a few years translation jobs will be “obsolete” and replaced by AI and machine translation tools, leaving people like her with no more than intuitive checking and reviewing.
“Recruitment and income” [these days] There are very few, so I have to concentrate on my work as an interpreter. [live translations]Exploring something new,” she says.
“My $40,000 degree is now worthless.”
Prominent employers such as Amazon have announced large-scale layoffs to increase spending on AI.
But Professor Bamber said that while AI has slowed recruitment into management roles and led to job redesign, it has not yet caused a widespread shock.
“Overall employment levels for companies implementing AI have so far remained broadly stable,” he said.
”The impact on employment will depend on how employers reorganize work around AI.”
Many respondents who work in or want to join Australia’s creative industries also told the ABC they feared their jobs would be eliminated by AI’s ability to generate images, video and text.
Melbourne-based Taylor Leslie is studying animation to create cartoons that help children express their emotions, inspired by the TV shows she watched as a child.
Taylor Leslie wants to start a career as an animator, but says AI creates uncertainty. (Provided by: Taylor Leslie)
But she now wonders if she can get started in the industry.
“I started thinking about roles that wouldn’t be affected by it.” [AI]And unfortunately, in the arts industry, it’s virtually zero,” she says.
“I’m going to get my degree, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to get a job in this industry or somehow make my own way.”
Taylor is concerned that children could grow up watching cartoons generated by AI rather than by humans. (Provided by: Taylor Leslie)
As a preliminary step, I am considering studying to become a school support officer.
“I never thought I would do something like this in the middle of my studies, turning my attention to other things to study,” she says.
Other people who spoke to ABC said AI is taking away entry-level jobs in industries such as software development, where AI helps with coding.
One respondent said he felt “cheated” after studying IT to increase job opportunities during the coronavirus pandemic, but noticed that text generation AI was “maturing” while studying.
Tom (not his real name), from New South Wales, said: “A $40,000 degree (with honors) is worthless. I’m lucky to have a job at Bunnings and not be homeless.”
“Be aware of the AI training gap”
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With a shocking sound, the AI landed on Trudy Schulte, a medical typist from Western Australia.
Just seven years before her planned retirement, she said the advent of technology led to significant job losses.
Trudy, 60, had spent 13 years typing for doctors when they started using AI transcription software i-scribe this year.
Trudy Schulte doesn’t plan on retiring for another seven years and must find a new job. (Provided by: Trudy Schulte)
Within a few weeks, Schulte’s work week went from 24 hours to about an hour.
“I had no complaints about my work and it was accurate,” she says.
“I offered that [check the AI transcripts] And no one took me up…now I’m applying for other jobs. But it was difficult. ”
Professor Bamber says employers, governments and workers each have a role to play in managing the impact of AI on employment.
Employers need to commit to “replacing before replacing” workers, guaranteeing interviews for departing workers for newly created AI-enhanced roles, and adapting apprenticeships and internships to AI so young people can continue to learn, he says.
“Don’t just eliminate tasks, redesign jobs. Don’t just reduce headcount, use some of the efficiency gains to reduce caseloads and improve customer service.”
The government should also establish a ‘payroll loss insurance pilot’ to cover part of the salary of departing workers who take on lower-paid roles while improving their skills, and give all adults annual training credits available to vetted healthcare providers, Professor Bamber says.
And the best “line of defense” for workers, he says, is to develop AI skills relevant to their role before considering a complete career jump.
“Beware of the ‘training gap’: If your employer isn’t investing in [in training]self-directed learning may be required,” says Professor Bamber.
But for some workers, the decision to adopt AI is also a moral one.
Kathy recently pivoted again by applying for grant-writing jobs (a job that could be too sensitive for AI), and already earns money from both her children’s books and children’s reading workshops.
Kathy Polimeni also has other sources of income, including her work writing children’s books. (ABC News: Jillian Aelia)
She says she plans to continue writing rather than apply for a job as an AI editor because she doesn’t want to make money in a way that “devalues” her profession.
“If you’re on the bread line, you get one thing, but for me, I’d like to get a million dollars.” [other] Things come first,” she says.
“I would go and do something with my own hands, because it looks too dystopian to me.”
