How Artificial Intelligence Can Create More Jobs Than it Destroys

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a product of our imaginations. From Siri or Alexa in our homes to increased automation in workplaces, AI is officially here, and it isn’t going away. That fact has sparked concern that AI (an area of computer science aiming to build software and hardware that replicates important human mental faculties, learns on its own, and ultimately thinks and reacts like a human) will decimate employment across several sectors, as human-performed tasks are turned over to machines. But this fear may be unfounded – studies indicate that AI will create more jobs than it eliminates.

How is That Possible?

Most fears stem from a belief that AI will automate work that was previously done by humans, but Svetlana Sicular, research vice president at research and advisory giant Gartner Inc., says their study shows differently. "Unfortunately, most calamitous warnings of job losses confuse AI with automation,” said Sicular. “That overshadows the greatest AI benefit — AI augmentation — a combination of human and artificial intelligence, where both complement each other." That’s the key – AI will support humans to do other functions and enhance our work, not replace it outright.

Indeed, AI’s greatest boon will be related to productivity – Gartner estimates that in 2021, AI augmentation will generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity. Mike Rollings, research vice president at Gartner, stresses that the relationship between humans and AI will be complementary, not destructive. "AI can take on repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up humans for other activities…[it] will require reinvestment and reinvention instead of simply automating existing practices," he said. "Rather than have a machine replicating the steps that a human performs to reach a particular judgment, the entire decision process can be refactored to use the relative strengths and weaknesses of both machine and human to maximize value generation and redistribute decision-making to increase agility."

The Gartner report cites 2020 as the year that the technology will become a “positive job motivator.” By their calculations, AI will have created 2.3 million jobs by that time while eradicating 1.8 million. They predict effects will vary by industry – Gartner found that healthcare, the public sector, and education will see continuously growing job demand through 2019, while manufacturing will see the greatest immediate losses. "Many significant innovations in the past have been associated with a transition period of temporary job loss, followed by recovery, then business transformation…AI will likely follow this route," said Sicular. Gartner believes that millions of middle- and low-level positions will be affected by the technology, but millions more highly skilled, management-level, and even refined low- and entry-level positions will be created, to the tune of two million net new jobs by 2025.

While Gartner’s report is speculative, their findings are not unique. A study of automation in the UK, conducted by prominent consulting firm Deloitte, found that AI made 800,000 jobs obsolete, but created 3.5 million new ones, which averaged $13,000 more in pay. While interim growing pains are to be expected, it appears that there is room for AI and humans to coexist – and improve each other’s productivity – long into the future.

Interested in How Artificial Intelligence Can Enhance the Investment Profession?

Hedge funds and large institutional investors today are using Artificial Intelligence to analyze large data sets for investment opportunities, and they have also unleashed AI on charts to discover patterns and trends. Not only can the AI scan thousands of individual securities and cryptocurrencies for patterns and trends, and it generates trade ideas based on what it finds. In this sense, hedge funds have had a distinct advantage over retail investors for some time now.

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