Top leaders at several of America’s largest firms have sent a warning to their employees: Artificial intelligence is a threat to your career. CEOs ranging from Amazon to IBM, Salesforce, and JPMorgan Chase are warning their staff to prepare for upheaval as AI transforms or eliminates their professions in the future.
Did Amazon’s CEO Say Anything About New Tech Trends?
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a Tuesday public message that AI will “improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots,” and predicted that his company’s corporate personnel would decline “in the next few years.” He joins several other senior executives who have recently raised concerns about the impact of AI in the workplace.
Jassy told Amazon employees that AI would cut some corporate functions, such as customer support agents and software developers, but would also change employment for people in the company’s warehouses, within “the next few years.”
How To Know If AI Is Replacing Your Job Soon?
Researchers say there are no clear indicators that AI is causing significant layoffs across industries. However, there is evidence that professionals in the United States are rapidly incorporating AI into their employment, and the technology is beginning to revolutionize specific roles such as computer programming, marketing, and customer support. At the same time, CEOs are under pressure to demonstrate that companies are embracing new technology and achieving outcomes, which encourages attention-grabbing projections that might cause more uncertainty for employees.
How Companies React When AI Causes Big Job Losses?
Some of the biggest concerns have come from tech CEOs, who are interested in showing the capabilities of AI. At the same time, the industry has been shedding staff in recent years, following massive recruiting sprees during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak and Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Even CEOs who oppose the idea of AI replacing people on a large scale are advising employees to brace for upheaval.
IBM, which recently disclosed job losses, stated that it replaced a few hundred HR employees with AI “agents” for monotonous tasks such as onboarding and organizing interviews. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on Joe Rogan’s podcast that businesses will develop AI that can accomplish what some human workers can by the end of the year.
The Top Advice Google’s CEO Gives to AI Engineers Today
At a tech conference last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that while AI will help engineers be more productive, his company will continue to hire more human engineers. Meanwhile, Microsoft is anticipating further layoffs despite significant investment in AI. Other tech leaders at Shopify, Duolingo, and Box have informed employees that they are now obligated to use AI in their employment, and some will track usage as part of performance appraisals.