Without a doubt, AI will live on and become even more powerful in the years to come. From military hardware to financial software packages, they all have AI as a key element.
The ripple effect is already being felt, especially on the employment front. Global giant IBM plans to replace about 7,800 jobs with AI. The company has also paused further hiring, particularly for roles that it believes could be replaced by AI, and expects to replace about 30 percent of non-customer-facing roles with AI over five years.
A wide range of companies across information technology, telecoms, BFSI, media and entertainment are beginning to redesign their global workforce plans with the aim of reducing the jobs AI can replace.
The computational power of AI is also being effectively used in Fintech. They have cleverly used this to automate various elements of the workflow, from credit evaluation to final sanctions and payments, all without human intervention. AI-enabled algorithms based on machine learning tools are used not only to analyze complex data sets in the fields of investment and finance, but also to generate the words and sentences desired by readers and ultimately scripts that can be incorporated by publishing entities. can also be deployed to generate , thereby reducing the time and effort expended. By the publishing team, especially the editors.
Re-skilling may not help
As AI tools become more sophisticated, job surpluses and ultimately job losses will inevitably arise. This does not necessarily bode well for a populous country like India. Pro-AI experts might argue that the loss of AI-created jobs will allow the laid-off workforce to reskill themselves or adapt to other types of employment. Machines are adapting through ML (machine learning) tools that make them more effective and disruptive, thereby annexing remaining areas where a reskilled workforce can potentially enter. So reskilling is not a panacea. There is no doubt that routine tasks in various industries, especially the service sector, will be automated, but this can have disastrous consequences. Every economic solution has a social impact.
An overpopulated country like India cannot afford to leave surplus labor as a surplus. Western companies will not hesitate to use AI tools to gain strategic advantage, but it should not come at the cost of disrupting and displacing large segments of the employable masses. Even capital-rich, labor-scarce Western nations are waking up to the dangers of AI. Unless national and state level AI policies are developed and implemented, the use of AI will become uncontrolled and uncontrolled across all industries, ultimately leading to major disruptions to the Indian labor market. That would turn the dream of enjoying a demographic bonus into a nightmare.
In 1979, Akio Morita, the legendary Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony, met with Deng Xiaoping, a leading figure in China’s reforms, and Deng Xiaoping asked Morita to move into China’s robotic automation process. asked for assistance. Sony’s boss told Deng Xiaoping that since China is a large country with a huge population, it is in China’s best interest to utilize the available labor force in manufacturing and other sectors and not blindly introduce automation. It was only natural to point out that there was, and advise Deng Xiaoping to oppose the move. Morita’s advice is still valid.
The author is Head of Structured Finance at Fedbank Financial.Opinions are personal
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