Upskilling and Reskilling in the Age of AI

The AI revolution is upon us. A tidal wave of AI technology is sweeping across businesses, fundamentally reshaping how employees, managers, and AI system developers approach their work. To survive but also thrive in this new era, everyone—from the front lines to the back office—will need to equip themselves with additional skills and knowledge.

AI IS EVERYWHERE

AI has become a powerful tool in many aspects of our lives and is revolutionizing how we interact with technology. Although some uses of AI are scary, most are beneficial.

General AI (artificial general intelligence) is a hypothetical type of AI that possesses human-like intelligence. It could learn, reason, solve problems, and adapt to new situations in a comprehensive way, similar to a human brain. It currently only exists in science fiction.

Narrow AI (artificial narrow intelligence) is the type of AI we encounter today. It’s designed to perform specific, well-defined tasks exceptionally well. For example, IBM’s AI-based Deep Blue famously defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. Today, we interact with narrow AI through virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, recommendation systems on streaming services, online stores, and navigation apps that suggest optimal routes.

Generative AI (GenAI) is a type of narrow AI widely introduced by OpenAI’s Chat-GPT in 2022. GenAI creates text, code, images, audios, and videos after being trained using massive datasets. For example, GenAI can create a novel after being trained on thousands of text files found on the internet, generate a new image based on thousands of paintings in museums worldwide, or spawn a new audio song from massive libraries of recorded music. GenAI can also edit (e.g., correct subject and verb inconsistencies), summarize (e.g., convert meeting minutes to a concise summary), and translate (e.g., convert English documents to German). Businesses will benefit from AI applications that generate new content, transcribe audio to text, summarize meeting minutes, and translate documents.

Here are just some of the many business sectors influenced by AI applications:

Business and finance. AI helps businesses optimize operations with fraud detection systems in banks, personalized marketing strategies based on user behavior and preferences, and automation of repetitive tasks.
Healthcare. AI plays a crucial role in medical diagnosis and treatment with applications that analyze X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and lab test results and can develop personalized treatment plans.
Manufacturing. AI enhances efficiency by analyzing data, identifying patterns and insights that human operators might miss, optimizing production processes by minimizing waste, adjusting parameters, and predicting maintenance needs, thereby reducing task time and managing administrative duties.
Transportation. The transportation sector is heavily influenced by AI with the development of self-driving cars that rely on AI algorithms to perceive their surroundings, make real-time decisions, optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion, detect potential hazards, and prevent accidents.

AI is successful when it performs tasks such as these faster and more accurately than most people:

Data processing and analysis. AI can sift through large datasets, identify patterns, and extract insights that would be overwhelming for most people. This is crucial for tasks such as financial fraud detection, scientific research analysis, and optimizing business operations.
Repetitive tasks with high precision. AI can perform repetitive tasks such as consistently transcribing voice to text, recognizing objects in images, or generating personalized invitations to a major event.
Comply with well-defined rules. AI excels at tasks with clear-cut rules and procedures, such as back-office procedures for handling routine customer inquiries, tracking orders, and responding to refund requests.

However, AI currently struggles with certain types of tasks, including these, that do not lend themselves to algorithms and automation:

Common sense and reasoning. AI often lacks the ability to understand the nuances of human language and the real world, making it difficult to manage unexpected situations.
Creativity and innovation. While AI can generate creative text formats or images, it lacks the true ingenuity and ability to think outside the box that are synonymous with human creativity.
Social and emotional intelligence. AI has difficulty understanding and responding to human emotions or complex social cues.

While you may feel uncomfortable or threatened by AI, it is here to stay. The use of AI by businesses will accelerate. It is wise for people to learn how to use and benefit from AI in their work environments.