Introduction
Will AIs replace human workers?
This question has ignited and fueled fears around the world. Given that AI seems to be everywhere, particularly since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public at the end of 2022. AI commercials are ubiquitous. It is all over TikTok and other social platforms, being touted by people of all ages. Movies are even popping up to show how the sky will one day fall 1. And it’s true: sooner or later, AIs should be able to replace much if not all of the knowledge work humans perform, and once robotics advance enough, robots with and without AI should be able to replace much if not all of the remaining jobs humans perform manually with their bodies.
Then what?
Asking the “then what?” is really where you can run down a rabbit hole trying to imagine how things for humans end up. The theories and forecasts are many, and range from the benign to the apocalyptic. And while it is important to acknowledge this logically next question, since there are so many of those discussions happening in articles and research, it is not something that that will be covered here.
Instead, the focus will be how it could actually transpire. How will it happen? Is it possible to guide the transformation, and if so, how do you chart out a path that is efficient and realistically achievable?
While this analysis could be broadly applied, I will concentrate on how the transformation could work for businesses, so that AI productivity improvements can be developed responsibly and systematically. Ultimately, we want to know what a practical, long-term approach to incorporating AI into productivity, across roles, might look like.
Approach
At a high level, you need to
- Research and understand available models and related plugins
- Dissect the work being done at the company, breaking roles into components and functions
- Regularly evaluate which functions can be either augmented or replaced by the most closely aligned models
- Re-evaluate roles, components and functions for continued relevance as functions shift between levels of augmentation and replacement
Example Analysis
We might as well pick on the industry ushing in our AI Age, software. For this analysis, we will start by taking a look at typical software engineer and engineering manager at a general software company.
Role: Software Engineer
Component: Admin
| Job Function | Disposition | Model |
|---|---|---|
| Function 1 | Augment 1 | A |
| Function 2. | Replace | B |
| Function … | Augment 2 | C |
| Function N | Replace | D |
Component: Testing
| Job Function | Disposition | Model |
|---|---|---|
| Function 1 | Augment 3 | A |
| Function 2. | Replace | B |
| Function … | Augment 3 | C |
| Function N | Replace | D |
Component: Coding
| Job Function | Disposition | Model |
|---|---|---|
| Function 1 | Augment 1 | A |
| Function 2. | Replace | B |
| Function … | Augment 1 | C |
| Function N | Replace | D |