Blame James Cameron’s Terminator films, if you will, but there is undeniably a certain amount of media scaremongering when it comes to AI and its role in the future job market.
There are hundreds of think pieces online built around the idea that AI will take our jobs out from underneath us, but in many sectors, AI is improving how we work in a way that benefits both the consumer and the workers themselves.
Here, we’ll put the spotlight on a few sectors and functions that will benefit, and are already benefitting from the AI revolution.
On the Phone
Any sector that relies heavily on phone calls for sales and customer service stands to benefit substantially from AI. Call tracking and speech analytics services are improving how our phone calls function by making them more efficient. Speech analytics technology from Mediahawk can categorize calls based on spoken keywords, instantly reveal the callers with a higher purchasing intent, and reduce the length of the phone call ultimately benefitting the customer and the worker.These cloud-based servicesalso allow businesses to improve their marketing ROI by tracking how a prospect calls your business and guiding your marketing expenditure accordingly.
Recruitment
There is great potential in businesses using AI to fundamentally change the way they source new candidates. AI could help job seekers find jobs that are better suited to them with machine-learning equipped search engines and help identify the costs of each hire and what positions take longest to fill to automatically change strategies accordingly. This will save HR departments a great deal of time and resources.
Task Replacement – Not Job Replacement
Whilst there are legitimate fears of AI processes replacing low-skilled workers, it’s more likely that jobs will not disappear, but change to reflect the new technological status quo. This means that whilst some of the tasks a person does as part of their job might be automated, the job itself will remain and the worker will be freed up to dedicate more time doing the jobs that can’t be automated. Machines will always struggle to replace human beings when it comes to jobs that require abstract problem solving and empathy, but when it comes to menial tasks that replace human brawn with mechanical power, the skies are very much the limit.
Online
Finally, the most obvious area where AI will have a positive impact is digitally – in the online space. AI chatbots are already being utilized by most customer-facing sectors and they have potential to be reliable than human customer service staff whilst also being available 24/7. They could also offer a less stressful alternative for people who might not want to speak to a human being to solve a sensitive issue.
