We were having a family chat the other day, which developed into something quite worrying, writes Clinton Rogers.
We all ended up feeling quite depressed!
The subject was: What jobs might survive the relentless march of AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
The truth is, we scared ourselves about the number of professions, the number of careers that might be trampled by the genie that’s escaped from the bottle.
There’s no putting him back, that’s for sure.
There is a certain irony in writing about artificial intelligence on a laptop that insists on correcting my grammar before I’ve quite decided what I mean!
The march of AI has been described as relentless.
That feels about right.
From drafting emails to diagnosing disease, from composing symphonies to driving tractors straighter than any farmer after a long day, the algorithm is advancing across terrain once thought distinctly human.
Where will it end?
The six-million-dollar question, and our family had no real answer.
Utopia or unemployment line?
As ever, the truth is unlikely to be so theatrical.
It will be somewhere in the middle.
AI is a tool and should be viewed as such.
It can benefit you, or it can harm you.
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Think about it like this: A hammer can help build a house or break a window.
Still, we would be foolish to pretend there will be no casualties.
Clerical roles, routine accounting, basic legal drafting, customer service desks, and even elements of journalism (I have written this myself!) are vulnerable.
I’ve seen estimates suggesting that 30 to 40 per cent of current roles contain tasks that could be largely automated within a decade or two.
Ouch!
Yet other professions may prove more resilient.
The nurse at a patient’s bedside, the electrician tracing a fault through an old Somerset cottage, the teacher managing a difficult classroom.
Roles demanding empathy, moral judgement or a trained, steady hand are more likely to weather the AI storm.
So what advice do we as parents or grandparents give tomorrow’s job seekers?
I don’t pretend to have the wisdom to answer that.
But if I had one piece of advice, it would be to cultivate adaptability.
What you learn at 18 may need refreshing at 28 and reinventing at 38.
We’ve learned a long time ago that the old-fashioned “job for life” has largely disappeared.
Now careers and professions are, if not disappearing, then morphing at a quite astonishing rate.
This generation will need to understand AI, not be frightened of it, but relish the chance to use it as a tool.
Above all, work with it, but not for it.
