Everyone is talking about how artificial intelligence (AI) could take over our careers. It is true that, in reality, AI has been replacing and threatening a lot of jobs. Recently, the IMF just revealed how AI will impact 40% of jobs around the world. It will replace some jobs and complement human work. Thus, the focus should be on AI innovation and integration for advanced economies.
Meanwhile, for emerging markets and developing economies, they should prioritize making digital infrastructure investments and developing digitally competent employees. How does AI-proofing help with this? It will help your career sustain itself and be less likely to be replaced wholly by an AI.
AI-Proof Skills That You Need
The key to keeping AI from winning over you is to keep learning and increasing your own skills. AI won’t replace you as easily if you actively master your soft skills. This is because it does not cover every trait that a human has. AI cannot generate ideas that are outside of the box. They have reasoning skills, just that their way of reasoning is different from humans. So, what are the skills that you need? Here are some of them:
- Emotional intelligence
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- Problem solving
- Empathy
Use AI
It could sound counterintuitive, but with this method, AI won’t win over you. Learning, making use and staying updated on their latest technologies and tools will help your career in the long run. According to a case study by HeyDevs Vietnam, a data analyst AI-proofed her career by applying machine learning techniques to improve her job in data analysis. As a result of utilizing AI, she developed a model to predict customer churn accurately. Thus, it greatly helps her company to take appropriate measures to prevent customers from leaving. This makes her a valuable data analyst.
Always Cross-Check
You could utilize AI in your day-to-day tasks, but do not ever forget to check any mistakes and assumptions AI made. AI hallucinations are real and you may not want to get caught up in their mistakes. Make use of your own human-powered skills to make every task and decision better. Unlike humans, they only rely on what they learn and lack the common sense to make judgments based on general knowledge.
Build Your Personal Branding
Authenticity always wins and cannot be substituted with AI. Every individual has their own unique story to tell. Even though AI could create their own stories, it may not match the real, in-depth experience a person has. The different variations that it creates may circulate the same information that it learns. If AI is utilized to create personal branding, it could cause chaos. It could be combining stories from different sources that they learn from, which could be confusing. For example, another person’s personal experience might be present in another person’s brand.
Just as Bill Gates has said, AI may be slowly infiltrating our daily lives, just like the internet does. This means AI will always be there. Hence, we need to adapt, embrace AI and make the most of it to enhance and keep our careers ‘alive’. This way, not only will our careers last longer, but they will also boost our personal and professional development.
