After a banner year celebrating all that generative AI has to offer, it seems clear that the technology behind ChatGPT—which has now proven to write solid letters, reports, and even movie scripts—is placing some positions at risk and potentially obsolete. Indeed, IBM recently announced its marketing and communications team is downsizing, due in part to generative AI. More than one-third of companies using AI said AI had replaced workers in 2023, with 44% anticipating that AI will lead to further layoffs in 2024.
The question is no longer, “How much can generative AI do?” It’s, “How much work can human workers keep to stay relevant in a post-gen-AI world?”
As we face a future defined by AI, one of the most important truths for us as workers in the global economy to accept is this: efficiencies will always make good business sense. Just as automation took over manufacturing jobs, AI will take over many white-collar jobs—in marketing and beyond. The goal of any business—in America, at least—is to maximize profits. Any technology that allows businesses to work faster, create more, and benefit from deeper insights will be seen as a positive thing by business executives. Research shows that by 2030, work that accounts for about one-third of hours currently worked in the US economy could be automated, thanks in part to generative AI.
Here are a few considerations as we weigh the risks and opportunities of generative AI on the future of work.
Generative AI Will Create New Jobs—but will those Suit You? Test the Video Game Dilemma:
It’s possible that one job lost in marketing will lead to a new, more advanced role in marketing, but that’s highly unlikely. Chances are higher that the work landscape is going to be spotty, and strange, and different for years to come—but eventually these technological revolutions do create new and often unexpected roles.
Consider this interesting scenario: If AI allows programmers to develop a new game 50% faster and with 20% of the resources, we will still need fewer programmers to do that work, even if more people want to play the game. That just means that we need to start thinking differently about work and our place in it as we continue to press forward with advancements in generative AI—and whatever technology comes next. One thing is certain: spend time acquiring new AI skills and adopting the ‘AI mentality’ behind automation and data-oriented value creation. In several recent interviews NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has recently shared a perspective on programming and coding that indicates that the oft-fashionable path of becoming a programmer may not be the ultimate safety net.
So which jobs most likely see a meaningful pullback due to generative AI? Here is my list of the top 10 roles that AI can streamline to 50-80% fewer FTEs:
- Website and copy development
- Marketing Automation
- Sales and Sales Development Representatives
- Basic Legal Support for Personal and Business
- Tax Filing and Basic Business Accounting
- Customer Service L1/L2
- Light Coding and Application Development
- Social Media Content and Press Releases
- Inventory Management and Optimization
- HR and Talent Management and Identification
There are many more, but for startups and small businesses the continued and rapid development of vertical AI and LLM capabilities will enable companies to gain significant productivity and efficiency with lower personnel costs.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman suggested that in the future we will have single person, billion dollar companies. While that seems improbable without massive inflation, it seems increasingly likely that 10-20 person companies could generate more than $100 million in revenue and potentially reach a billion with the smart use of generative AI and intelligent chatbots.
Generative AI Can Be your Competitor—but Make it a Friend instead
For the first time, people with very few design skills, for example, can use AI to generate beautiful graphic layouts. People with limited writing skills can use generative AI to write letters, reports, and even marketing campaigns. And they can use AI to determine how successful those campaigns are—and change them in real-time if they aren’t working. Those are all, on their own, really cool things. And before you suggest that we need humans to deal with generative AI because it isn’t perfect, and it hallucinates. I agree, but every day it gets better, and it will continue to at an order of magnitude faster as the tech and algorithms get better.
So how can you stay relevant when AI is capable of doing so much?
First, stay engaged. In a time when it’s easy to let AI do all the work, resist the temptation. While it’s absolutely imperative for workers in marketing and communications specifically to familiarize themselves with what generative AI is capable of doing, it’s also important that they remain engaged with their company’s data, brand, and culture. AI can draft a report. But we still need bright people to review the information to ensure it makes sense, that AI didn’t go adrift, and that the insights being produced are going to lead to positive results.
Second, all employees in marketing and communication specifically need to look at AI as a partner that enhances their portfolios rather than an enemy that could potentially steal it. Employees who know how to take advantage of what AI has to offer have way less chance of having their positions outsourced to AI than those who continue to avoid it altogether. Marketing and communications leaders need to know what AI is capable of, but they also need to be the most outspoken about its limits in terms of maintaining customer relationships and keeping humans at the heart of every customer interaction. You can’t define AI’s limits if you’re too afraid to know what it does. So get to know it, inside and out.
AI Will Change the Job Landscape—It’s All About Staying Productive and Efficient
Every technology revolution has ultimately yielded more, not less jobs.
Based on Futurum Intelligence data, the investment in proof-of-concept projects with AI in these areas is on the rise at a three-fold rate from the year before. These numbers were further validated by Accenture’s recent earnings which saw the company announce it saw $1.1 Billion in revenue from generative AI in the first half of its fiscal outpacing the revenue of all VC backed AI startups combined.
AI is coming to a career near you. It’s happening and it’s moving quickly and the best way to stay ahead of it is to understand it and how it can help the work that you do. There is no guarantees that a role won’t succumb to AI disruption, but roles have always been vulnerable to the next wave of tech—stay agile, stay sharp and keep learning. Being marketable and diverse in your skills will always be seen positively by employers.
This article was written by a 100% human being;
