👋🏽 AI isn't taking all our jobs

By the way if you missed out on our Spring breakfast event we’d love to see you at the next one. Check out this video to get a feel for what they’re like.

Spoiler alert: AI isn't taking all our jobs.
I went to a 3-day AI in hiring conference in the US.
Here’s part 1 of what I learnt and what I think the near future looks like:

My YouTube feed is flooded with tech CEOs telling me that AI is taking all our jobs... Not true.

In the coming years yes, the work that we do online will massively be disrupted by AI.

But the best analogy I heard was Iron Man and his suit.

Neither Tony Stark or the suit are as powerful separately as they are together.

AI is incredible at processing information, pattern matching, and automation but humans are undefeated when it comes to taste, understanding culture, gut feel, and personal connection.

AI amplifies human decision-making. It doesn't replace it.

We shouldn't abdicate completely to AI at work. We shouldn't be data-driven but data-informed. We now just have another data point to make a decision.

🧩 Job Descriptions Will Completely Change

The move away from focusing heavily on qualifications, education, and experience will continue. When new individuals join an organisation, they'll know their role will change significantly, perhaps on a quarterly basis, with the continued developments in technology. This could mean future job descriptions will be incredibly short, focusing on simply the skills required to achieve a desired outcome.

Amazon went from receiving 10 million applications and only being able to fill 70% of them to increasing AI in the recruitment process and now filling 99% of roles.

By creating a closed loop system whereby the technology learns from each hire made and links that back to what was in the job description that the successful individual matched well to, what skills do they have that have proven to be effective in the role. That insight then informs the next JD

🗂️ The Org Chart Is Dying
With rapid changes in technologies the old system of having set org charts and very rigid job titles won't last. We'll instead focus on our areas of value and be responsible for the outcomes within our functions. This will mean career paths will be much more fluid.

When we start new jobs we'll need to be much more adaptable about what that job will be and what we'll actually be doing every 3, 6, 12 months.

🎨 Work Will Be Fully Redesigned
The lines between jobs, projects, and gigs will become much more blurred. It's likely that we'll get to a place where we'll be hired by employers to complete individual projects for set periods of time before moving on to a new project.

It's not unthinkable that we'll be moving to a future where more employees will be working for multiple different organisations at the same time, similar to the way contractors work (which could mean a lot more days of annual leave with the same level of annual pay).

🪡 Skills, Skills And More Skills
In the coming years all major organisations will be focusing on ‘skills mapping’ and trying to understand:
- What skills are required to get the outcomes they need
- What skills you have
- What skills you're missing out on
- Where does AI will in the gaps
This will completely change the way that we learn.

The old model was: go to school, go to university, start work get some training for a few weeks then learn on the job.

The new model: rapidly and permanently learning new skills and new technologies and even harder than that, we'll need to unlearn skills that were previously core to our jobs, which many of us derived our value from, which will be very hard for some….

All team members will need some broad literacy combined with hyper-specific AI training for your role.

For TA/People functions human judgement, ethics, relationships and context will become even more valuable but I think these areas are likely to evolve to include understanding the capabilities of AI agents in addition to the current and future workforce.

But more on that next time. Have a great weekend!

Book a call here if you want to chat with me about attracting talented young professionals from backgrounds your current channels might be missing.

Until next time 👋🏽

Tobi

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