Employees worry over ‘loss of jobs’ due to Artificial Intelligence

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Report by Julia Cassano

There are rising concerns amongst employees in the Middle East, Turkey, and the Africa region regarding the use of robots and automation systems, resulting in over 55 percent of Meta employees becoming afraid of being made redundant.

According to the most recent Kaspersky research, one in every five employees (22 percent) has become aware of cybersecurity incidents involving bots or automated systems in their workplace.

However, many companies and organizations see the positive aspects of how artificial intelligence can benefit business decisions and development.

Participants in the survey noted the health benefits of automation and the use of AI in organizations, as 62 percent of respondents said that robots can engage in riskier or more demanding work, meaning various work demands would become less threatening for humans.

Furthermore, 37 percent of the participants believe that automation reduces the likelihood of accidents due to the human factor.

An additional 51 percent of the respondents state that robots can increase the efficiency of production processes, which increases economic benefits overall to the company.

Also, 40 percent noted that robotization allows employees to retrain for more interesting and higher paying positions.

Although employees worry about the future of their jobs, research shows that many employees understand and see the benefits that robotization brings to both the employees and the company.

Companies today have access to higher amounts of data than ever before, and the amount of data created and consumed by companies has increased by 5000 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to Forbes.

Additionally, with the help of emerging technologies, companies are now able to capture user data that can help them improve their business decisions.

Dr. Jassim Haji, President of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence, told The Daily Tribune: “With more companies and organizations instilling the use of AI into their strategies, there will be smarter and more innovative jobs created in the region as a result of AI."

"However, more routine, and repetitive jobs will be made redundant because of technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), specifically in back-office functions.”

Dr. Haji identified the sectors that will be the most affected by the use of AI, including, call centers and customer services as a result of ChatBox and more recently ChatGPT, bookkeeping, hospitality services in hotels and aviation, training providers replaced by virtual agents, and the banking sector's routine jobs and the front desk.

Although some organizations are wary of automation, others are beginning to adapt their processes to take advantage of the most recent technologies to advance their business strategies and ideas.

“We have witnessed globally that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google made 70,000 of their employees redundant, and Elon Musk predicts that computers, intelligent machines, and robots seem to be the workforce of the future, as more and more jobs will be replaced with technology,” said Dr. Jassim.

Dr. Haji confirmed that AI could potentially take the jobs of as many as one billion people globally, and make 375 million jobs obsolete over the next decade.

However, AI could create 97 million jobs and generate $15.7 trillion (BD 5.9 trillion) for the economy by 2030, all while eliminating mundane tasks and helping workers enhance and enjoy the creative aspects of their careers.