Society is at the cusp of a new technological era, through the use of artificial intelligence. The effect of intelligent machines on society is rising and they have impacted the way we live and work. Moreover, there is the concern that robots will soon substitute employees’ work tasks. This essay seeks to disagree with this subject matter to a limited extent; however, both sides of the coin will be argued.
Firstly, it is evident that it has already begun displacing specific roles. Its transformative technology seeks to advance efficiency and reduce wastage. The work of computers is very repetitive and routine in nature. Consequently, jobs that fall within the manufacturing sector, data entry, and customer service fall prey to this technology and they can be easily substituted. Key statistics indicate that it could replace up to 300 million jobs and about 14 % of employees that in the manufacturing industry would be forced to change their career by 2030. The most alarming data shows that data entry jobs will be most affected as approximately 7.5 million jobs will be lost by 2027. These systems reduce the number of personnel operating in a field of work.
On the other hand, it will not entirely cut out all job positions. Robots are a product of mankind, so even though they may appear to have some human qualities such as computer vision, natural language processing, deep learning, and translating, people are still required to control and manage these robotic devices. Also, professions such as human resource managers, judges, and bricklayers may not be replaced by it. These jobs require emotional intelligence and critical thinking, which are not facets of this technology. Additionally, they are unable to multitask and can only do what they were programmed to do through robotic process automation. In this instance, people are still required to do the tasks that machines are unable to do.
In conclusion, artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving field. There are instances where smart devices will usurp human capital, but to a limited extent. However, not all jobs will be displaced by intelligent machines due to the number of limitations they possess.