As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, it is taking on more and more tasks from humans–and doing it at a much faster pace. With AI’s ability to quickly sort through massive amounts of data, generate images and designs, and even prepare financial reports, it feels like no role is safe. Employees are asking, “Is AI going to take my job?,” and in turn, management teams are wondering – should it?
Across Southeast Asia, we are seeing growing concern. Experts have shared that approximately 540,000 to 600,000 Filipinos in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry could be facing unemployment in the near future. Also in trouble is the IT industry in Vietnam, where up to 40% of IT jobs are at risk to be automated by 2030. In Malaysia, studies have found that about 40.1% of employees in Malaysia are at high risk of being replaced by AI. This number rises to 70% of workers in high-risk occupations in Thailand. Across the globe, AI has replaced even writers and creative professionals – jobs previously thought to be safe.
It is easy to blame the existence of these tools as the cause of job displacement. However, the truth is that the decision to replace employees with AI is a decision that is made by the top management of an organization.
The Lose-Lose Scenario: AI vs. Employees
In Stanford University’s Social Innovation Review, they explore the two futures of work we may experience with AI. A possible future is one where cost-cutting and automation reign supreme, where AI takes precedence over humans and many jobs are lost. This is a reality many organizations may face. The alternative is a future where AI’s role is to create new opportunities for humans to explore more meaningful roles, a future where the focus is building a workplace that embraces the diversity of skills of humans and AI over the speed of pure automation.
The diversion between these two futures lies within an organization’s leadership and the choices they make. It is not an inevitability of AI, but rather leaders who will determine just how big of a threat AI will be to their employees. This means that leaders also have the power to reimagine and define the future of workplaces, where AI and human collaboration thrives.
However, the decision is admittedly not as simple as choosing to use AI tools versus keeping all employees. The truth is, when leaders frame the decision this way, no one wins. AI serves as a massive threat to entire industries as its capabilities may render certain services unnecessary. Thus, it is key for companies to adapt to this Digital Era and explore new ways of creating value and the new skills this will require.
Due to this increasing pressure to transform, leaders should also be ready for the reality where the loss of jobs becomes a necessary effect for business. These decisions are difficult to make, and cost-savings must be considered thoroughly.
The challenge for leaders is to consider: is AI really the better option? Are the cost-savings real, and if they are, are they worth it? Is the quality of output better, or are we settling for good enough?
When the answer is no, then perhaps AI isn’t the answer, and it’s best to explore other options.
When the answer is yes, leaders who are seeking to humanely meet this ethical challenge should strive for holistic AI adoption that looks beyond the financial and technological impacts of AI, but also at the organization’s culture and people.
Creating the Win-Win Scenario: AI supporting Employees
In a previous article, Navigating AI’s Ethical Challenges to become an AI Champion, Awaken Group introduced the AI Success Matrix, which highlighted the need for both intention and holistic investment in AI adoption. Particularly in regards to employment, this means that leaders who care deeply about the employment of their people must have the intention to develop their employees, not just to keep them. To match this intention, they must put in the time, effort, and money into training employees to use AI, reskilling them to take on new roles, and restructuring the organization as needed.
Organizations that have both the intention and the investment create spaces for both people and AI on the same teams. Doing so not only prevents mass layoffs and redundancy, but also creates an environment where both the employees and AI models can thrive.
Healthy collaboration between human thinking and AI thinking can open up doors to new ideas, new ways of working, and new value creation for the organization. This entails an AI adoption strategy that involves investing in training employees on how to use AI, when to use AI, and how AI will allow them to maximize their own skills.
These collaborations could be as simple as using an AI chatbot to tackle straightforward, simple questions, allowing the usually backed-up customer service agents to focus on solving more difficult problems and treating disgruntled customers with the patience and empathy that AI cannot replicate. AI could also take over tedious data cleanup and visualization tasks, which then allows employees previously doing these tasks to focus on analysis, insighting, and even solutioning.
Taking it a step further, AI can greatly improve a team’s ability to innovate. Using AI ideas as inspiration can allow employees to brainstorm quicker. AI can also speed up the prototyping process, with teams being able to develop more prototypes with less time. This will allow employees to focus on feedback and design improvements, rather than getting stuck with the first iteration.
In instances where AI takes up the roles previously held by employees, leaders should prioritize intentional upskilling and reskilling – identifying different opportunities for these employees, or even developing new roles that may arise due to the new business opportunities created by AI. This is especially necessary in industries that face total disruption in this era of AI, such as the BPO industry. With the rise of AI-powered customer service solutions, leaders of BPOs must be ready to transform their organizations.
Worried leaders can look to Concentrix Philippines, one of the largest IT-BPO employers in the country. Aware of the ability of AI to replace their customer service representatives, Concentrix has invested in reskilling programs to train these workers to take on different opportunities in customer experience (CX) where they feel a human touch is still especially important. Doing so has allowed the company to maximize the use of AI in customer service, while expanding their reach with other CX opportunities.
The Current Scenario: Critical Leadership Decisions
Ultimately, it is unfair to say that the fear of loss of employment due to AI is not real, as for many, it is a reality they may soon have to face. However, the way forward should not be either-or, as organizations that recognize both the potential of AI and of their people can unlock a new way forward.
If you’re interested in learning more about our work with tech-driven transformation, read our GovTech Impact Story.
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