Last month, global audit firm PwC posted a vacancy for an \u201cAI Guru\u201d at its Sydney office. The position required data analytics knowledge, experience in supervised and unsupervised machine learning, with basic programming and database ability an advantage.
It’s one of a growing number of appeals for experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as businesses in Australia and worldwide scramble to exploit the fast-developing technologies. But as one recruiter told Computerworld , suitable candidates \u201care hardly falling off the tree\u201d.
\u201cWe get employers coming to us and saying they could employ all of our grad class, and that\u2019s just one company,\u201d says Professor of AI at UNSW, Toby Walsh. \u201cThere has to be more people and more understanding that these are the jobs of the future and there\u2019s plenty of opportunity for people to come in. It\u2019s not enough to satisfy demand.\u201d
The number of local job listings relating to artificial intelligence and machine learning increased by 65 per cent last year on the job site Indeed (while big data and cloud related postings decreased), said spokesperson Fiona Portet.
Data from Seek Australia similarly showed a 52 per cent increase in AI-related job posts between 2015 and last year. So high is the demand, while sharing the figures with Computerworld , Seek spokesperson Sarah Macartney mentioned that it, too, is \u201cregularly seeking highly capable people in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence to join our team.\u201d
While the surge in demand has not yet reached its peak, the window of opportunity for those with advanced technology skills may not be open for long. And the same candidates currently in demand could be the ones that are closing it.
As PwC Australia analyst Jon Williams explains: \u201cThey might now be programming their robot replacement.\u201d
Window to a new world
Earlier this year, IBM CEO Ginny Rometty reassured the Davos World Economic Forum that AI technologies will not lead to a choice of \u201cman or machine\u201d. Her words will come as little consolation to the 34 employees of a Japanese insurance firm who were fired last month , to be replaced by IBM\u2019s AI platform Watson.
More than a quarter of large Australian businesses \u2013 those with more than 1000 employees and $500 million annual revenue \u2013 said in response to a recent Infosys commissioned survey they will be making workers redundant and replacing them with AI technology. The study of 200 Australian companies also found that more Australians workers fear AI will lead to job losses (60 per cent) than any other nation surveyed.
Those in lower-wage jobs, suggests analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisors , may be the first to suffer. But white-collar workers, particularly those in technology-related roles, will be next.
\u201cIf you think about the content of many technology jobs, they are easily replaceable by robots or computers and artificial learning,\u201d says Williams, who consults clients on the effect AI will have on the workforce.
PwC\u2019s own research shows that Robotic Process Automation alone \u2014 which sits on the \u201csimpler more straightforward rules based processing of the AI spectrum\u201d the company says \u2014 will affect 31 per cent of IT workers tasks within the next five years, second only to the manufacturing sector.
While starting on the low-skill \u201cgrunt work\u201d of traditional tech roles, soon those AI systems will improve and take on higher-level tasks, Williams predicts.
\u201cThat band is going to move up over time, and it will be a higher and higher level skill of technology jobs. It may be this is a window where we need those skills to set the system up, but then the system also becomes self-sustaining,\u201d Williams says.
\u201cIt may be there\u2019s actually only a five, ten, 15 year window where we’re setting up a new world, and then what happens to technology jobs after that?\u201d
Robot, all too robot
\u201cPeople have to wake up to the fact that in some cases, some jobs are going to disappear,\u201d says Walsh, who along with Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk last week was announced as a signatory of the Asilomar Principles on developing safe AI.
\u201cThe best applications perhaps are going to allow us to be superhuman and do our tasks much better, allow us not to have to do the mundane and focus on the more creative, strategic aspects of our jobs.\u201d
But not all AI experts working today will be suitable for a more strategic role, says Williams. To secure their futures, adds Williams, many of them will need to focus on what AI technology is not good at.
\u201cRobots are notoriously bad at interacting with the environment and interacting with other human beings in providing services and experiences and care. And we\u2019re a long way away from robots coming up with new ideas, new products, new innovations,\u201d he says.
Once the AI-dominated \u201cnew world\u201d is in place, a very different set of skills will be in demand, he adds.
\u201cThe roles that will prosper will be those that require us to respond to non-standard stimuli. Trades jobs, jobs that require working in a built environment. Or jobs that require intuition and innovation and some new, higher skilled technology jobs,\u201d Williams says.
\u201cIf you\u2019re in technology, and you can\u2019t up-skill to a higher skill technology job, you\u2019re going to need to shift to either an empathy, intuition, human care job, which may not \u2013 stereotyping now \u2013 suit some people who currently work in technology. Or move into a job where you are working face to face with customers, helping them solve their personal IT issues or tech issues.\u201d
Tags data UNSW Australia PwC machine learning artificial intelligence employment self improving systems PricewaterhouseCoopers jobs robots Robotic Process Automation AI
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