The impact of AI

I have been wondering what the real risk is of artificial intelligence (AI) leaving many of us with insufficient work. AI itself is not my area of expertise, as I come from the employee end, but the increasing wailing and gnashing of teeth about AI bringing the imminent end of the our known world to me seems a bit overblown. Yet, anyway.

Earlier this year I attended a conference presentation where the presenter demonstrated using a variety of AI apps - such as Merlin, Wisecut, Pictory and Reel - to create posts to market their career development business; AI to write the straplines, hashtags and calls to action; AI to create the post images; AI to load the posts into a social media marketing scheduling app; then AI to generate interest in the posts when they went live (Aboobacker, 2025).

The presenter's aim was to create rapport with their potential customers, but I really don't think they had thought enough about the irony of bots commenting on the bots. And that is where I get stuck in thinking about the immediate utility of AI and the take-over of humankind.

The level of tosh used on media platforms is generally pretty awful. Yes, I am sure that AI will improve by leaps and bounds. Yes, I am sure the slop we are currently being served on digital media platforms will become sophisticated. Yes, I am sure we will find all sorts of little shortcuts that make our lives easier as people think of smart ways to simplify processes.

AI could be a tool to enhance work, not to replace it (Dahlin, 2024). And I too can see more AI opportunities than job losses, though that is not the perception of many: 51% of survey respondents report being somewhat or very concerned about AI job loss; and 12.6% saying they had already lost a job to AI (Dahlin, 2024). Groups facing structural inequalities in the labour market show that AI's impact may fall unfairly on those who are already facing barriers to work (Dahlin, 2024). Ouch.

Interestingly, the perceived job loss risk varies between white- and blue-collar workers, with 19% of white-collar workers having concerns compared to 26% of blue-collar (Chiarini et al., 2024). HOW we work also affects how great the AI risk appears to us: if we in more relational roles, we are less likely to feel threatened by AI (Chiarini et al., 2024). White-collar jobs have automation-vulnerable elements; such as structured tasks like coding and financial analysis. It is the 'best practice' process flow oriented nature of roles such as coding and financial analysis mean that in many instances, an app may be able to reach an appropriate decision from complex data inputs (Dahlin, 2024). But would we buy financial advice, or trust financial advice, from an app? Would an heart lung machine programming company put implicit faith in AI-generated code?

And should we be in reading people's calls for why we should go to their business that were generated by AI, promoted by AI, for a relational end? Is that the best use of our energy? 

I think we need to keep our AI aims clear and to not panic yet. 

Sam

References:

Aboobacker, A. (2025). 232 Revolutionizing Career Coaching with AI Solutions [video]. APCDA [Asia Pacific Career Development Association] Hybrid Conference 12-26 May 2025, Zheng Zhou Shi, China. https://asiapacificcda.vids.io/videos/4491dbb81b1fe7cfcd/232-revolutionizing-career-coaching-with-ai-solutions

Chiarini, A., Grando, A., Venturini, S., & Borgonovo, E. (2024). Do automation and AI impact on job reduction? A study on perceived risk of losing job among white-collars in the Italian manufacturing companies. Production Planning & Control, 35(16), 2198-2211. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2023.2244925

Dahlin, E. (2024). Who Says Artificial Intelligence Is Stealing Our Jobs?. Socius, 10, 23780231241259672, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231241259672