Scared AI will take your job? Here’s how to make yourself indispensable

People are becoming really scared that artificial intelligence (AI) will take their jobs, especially since ChatGPT and similar apps arrived on the scene recently.

This new technology rapidly started making waves in workplaces throughout the country, creating uncertainty about its challenges and opportunities at various levels of an organisation.

While companies are still considering how they can harness AI to improve processes, productivity and the bottom line, employees are concerned about what this warp speed new development might mean for their career prospects.

“Just like new technologies in the past, AI will most certainly lead to affect certain jobs, but, just as with past technological advances which frankly has been happening since the industrial revolution, new sectors and jobs will be created,” says Advaita Naidoo, Africa MD at Jack Hammer Global.

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Forward-thinking people are already imagining the possibilities that accessible AI will have in every area of work and business, she says.

“While we cannot yet understand the extent of the impact of AI on specific careers and fields and how the world of work in general is going to change in coming years, individuals have to start exploring this new terrain even in the absence of a map.”

Naidoo says regardless of your role, you have to start understanding and investigating how AI can be used to supplement, augment or enhance your work, so that at the very least you still contribute to the conversation, instead of being a nay-sayer or ostrich with your head in the sand.

“You might not yet know what the actual impact is in your domain of expertise, but by staying ahead of the curve of new developments, you will be well positioned to respond efficiently and effectively when the landscape becomes clearer, having empowered yourself along the way instead of adopting a wait-and-see approach.”

Everyone is looking for prompt engineers

There has, for example, been a massive upswing in demand for prompt engineers in the past few weeks, a position that was not even part of the mainstream talk two months ago.

In layman’s terms, a prompt engineer is someone who creates the prompts required for an AI model to perform a task.

The better the prompts, the better the AI response.

“Ultimately, professionals must approach the AI question not from a position of fear that they will be out-automated, but rather from the position that they should now develop their skillset so that they can incorporate new technology to enhance and augment their professional competitiveness,” Naidoo says.

Understanding how AI is changing an industry is especially useful for those interviewing for new positions, as providing thoughtful insights during the interview process may very likely make them stand out from their peers and give them the edge.

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“Although it may not be easy or familiar, investigating the impact of AI is necessary to set yourself apart from others in your field.”

Naidoo says you can do this by for instance, attending webinars, discussion groups, learning sessions, or watching YouTube videos. These are all free resources that can help you understand how to use AI in your industry and achieve your goals.

“While continuing to develop your topic expertise as well as boosting your technological proficiency, employees should focus on developing their uniquely human skills.

“There has never been a better motivation for developing exceptional communication and relational skills, honing leadership capabilities and fine-tuning one’s capacity to leverage data-driven insights for business and people impact.”