AAlong with Greenland, artificial intelligence was the topic that dominated discussions at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week. Charter was there again this year, hosting a session on AI leadership and reporting on a series of official and unofficial events. Here are some points to remember:
- Executives are increasingly vocal about their fears that AI will lead to significant job losses. “I think it’s possible that we’ll see unemployment levels of 20 to 30 percent over the next two to five years,” said Dan Schulman, who took over as CEO of Verizon last year and in November, 13,000 job cuts were announced. (The US telecommunications company said the reductions were not due to its use of AI.) Schulman thinks AI could replace people faster than they can devote to other types of work. “What are you going to retrain for?” Schulman said. “Most of the customer service will disappear. The programming, we know most of it will disappear. The legal aspects will probably be cut in half.”
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna argued that executives should be upfront with workers about AI-related job losses. At IBM, “there will probably be a shift of about 10 percent, but we will have a net increase,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be talked about.”
Schulman sees no alternative for businesses but to embrace AI and change quickly. Verizon created a fund of 20 million dollars for laid-off employees to benefit from training and placement to support their employability in the AI era. Additionally, “there are ways to work with the public sector and (think about) different forms of taxation that can distribute wealth in different ways,” Schulman proposed.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon advocated for progressive automation to avoid travel, saying he would welcome government bans on the mass replacement of humans with AI if that were necessary.
Not all Davos leaders said rising unemployment was likely due to AI. Microsoft President Brad Smith notably proposed that humans using AI could outpace AI advances. “Gosh, aren’t we, as employers and leaders, going to use technology as a tool to help our employees improve? he said. “Of course we are.”
- Experts expressed particular concern about the employment prospects of young workers. Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson said people aged 22 to 25 in professions exposed to A.I. experienced 16% Relative employment is decreasing, compared to 13% when researchers studied it a few months earlier. This suggests that “it could become much more significant in the coming months,” Brynjolfsson said. Microsoft’s Smith suggested that companies could use apprenticeships, where they don’t expect entry-level workers to outperform AI at first. “If we think that way, this could be the best time in our careers to hire the best young people we’ve ever met,” he said. “Our competitors don’t think that way and we could have the best young people after three years of university if we take advantage of this opportunity.”
- Political divisions spill over into the workplace. Some 42% of employees worldwide would rather change departments than work for someone with different values, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer released in Davos. Some 34% said they would put in less effort if their project team leader had different political beliefs than them. A large majority of workers support the establishment of mandatory workplace training “to engage in constructive dialogue in times of conflict.”
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna argued that executives should be upfront with workers about AI-related job losses. At IBM, “there will probably be a shift of about 10 percent, but we will have a net increase,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be talked about.”
Schulman sees no alternative for businesses but to embrace AI and change quickly. Verizon created a fund of 20 million dollars for laid-off employees to benefit from training and placement to support their employability in the AI era. Additionally, “there are ways to work with the public sector and (think about) different forms of taxation that can distribute wealth in different ways,” Schulman proposed.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon advocated for progressive automation to avoid travel, saying he would welcome government bans on the mass replacement of humans with AI if that were necessary.
Not all Davos leaders said rising unemployment was likely due to AI. Microsoft President Brad Smith notably proposed that humans using AI could outpace AI advances. “My goodness, aren’t we, as employers and leaders, going to use technology as a tool to help our employees improve? he said. “Of course we are.”