What is the issue?
- Despite all the fear mongering around the “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) Technologies, they can’t be wished away.
- While some jobs will indeed become redundant, more opportunities are bound to open up in new areas.
What is AI and what is the threat related to it?
- AI is the intelligence demonstrated by machines which are programmed to continuously ‘learn’, and mimic cognitive human functions.
- AI has already started impacting our lives and services like – “Voice-based searches in smart phones and Self-driven cars are already a reality”.
- Gartner’s “Technology hype cycle” has predicted mainstream adoption of AI to take off over the next 2-5 years on a massive scale.
- India currently holds a dominating position in the global services trade by virtue of its large youthful workforce.
- But many noted economist have warned that ‘AI systems’ and the consequent employment cuts could steal India’s demographic thunder.
Will it wipe out the IT Industry?
- It is a fact that AI-based bots have already taken away some jobs in the IT industry and this trend is expected to continue for a while.
- But we will still need people to monitor and maintain automated systems and a phase of sustained co-existence will eventually be reached.
- We will therefore ultimately end up with a more engaged and motivated workforce that would perform critical tasks rather than mundane activities.
- Additionally, historically, evolving technology has always been a net job creator and humans and machines have usually thrived and declined together.
- Hence, AI is also likely to create more jobs than it would destroy if the environment to foster innovation is nurtured.
- Notably, when computer made its foray into workspaces some 3 decades ago, the same fears of a technology takeover of jobs was expressed.
- But the down the lane, while computers have enhanced efficiency and reduced manual labour, newer opportunities that didn’t exist before have opened up.
How are the expected trends in employment?
- New Skills - A Gartner’s report predicts that by 2020, automation will create 2.3 million jobs, while only 1.8 million jobs will be lost.
- To capitalise on these opportunities and wade through the disruptive technologies, the IT workforce needs reskilling/upskilling to stay relevant.
- By demonstrating the right attitude, individuals can adapt by garnering more domain knowledge and developing analytical skills.
- The industry and other support organisations need to promote such skill development programs for their own growth and for the larger benefits.
- Uberisation - Uberisation of workforce simply indicates freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs (like the taxi aggregator’s model).
- With experts being hired on need basis for specific tasks and various projects being outsourced to individuals, this trend is gaining popularity.
- Organisations are warming up to the concept of remote workers, who can be contracted from anywhere on the planet, without any binding control.
- Such flexi working ecosystems is clearly the future and the workforce too needs to stay abreast with these developments to monetize on them.
- It is to be noted that contracted workers may be working for more than one organisation simultaneously.
What are reforms needed in the ed-sector?
- About 8 lakh students pass out of the nearly 3000 engineering colleges in the country, and an astounding 55% aspire for a job in the software industry.
- But shockingly only a mere 3% of them are equipped with skills needed for the job, which is partly due to lacklustre industry-academia collaboration.
- In order to evolve an IT workforce that can be future-proofed, we need to enhance industry collaboration through internships and other engagements.
- The sheer volume of the pass-outs is also a big hindrance and better curbs to hinder proliferation of substandard colleges in the domain could help.
Source: Business Line
