Is the digital workforce ready to take over? Artificial intelligence may be capable of assuming many tasks, but it will be some time, if ever, that it could replace jobs on a widespread basis. It simply has too many limitations. Instead, we need to acquaint a generation of workers with technologies to take on the more mundane, repetitive portions of their jobs, and in turn elevate their decision-making roles within enterprises. That's the word from Steve Shwartz, AI author, researcher and investor, who points out that the notion of AI taking jobs is a myth.

As Software 2.0 takes shape, how are AI processes--and the jobs that go with them--changing? When it comes to new AI automation, the Software 2.0 movement can be seen as akin to the auto industry's recent evolution. Beginning in the 1990s and rapidly progressing into the 2000s, the auto industry saw a huge rise in AI automation such as digital vehicle diagnostics. Throughout this, people worried that digital transformation might take jobs away, when instead it led to "greater profits, productivity, and competitiveness," according to a 2008 study by the journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change. In short, these innovations didn't replace jobs, per se; they simply changed the processes of jobs from the manufacturer's assembly line down to the mechanic's garage.

According to an article that appeared in Fortune earlier this year: Automation could replace 40% of jobs in 15 years. This article joins countless others in sounding the warning bells of the forthcoming AI-style industrial revolution. As we've heard so often, AI will replace jobs by the thousands. Almost overnight, half the country will be out of work. Admittedly, it would be impossible to tackle this issue from every angle. However, we can offer our sense of where this industry is, what the effects might be, and where we might be headed within 15 years. Is it going to happen?

What will artificial intelligence mean for the job market? That's a question that's been met with a lot of pessimism -- from predictions of a collapse of the global economy to soaring mass unemployment. But Silicon Valley start-up incubator Y Combinator president Sam Altman has a far more positive take on the issue. AI might well replace most jobs as we know them today, he said during the New York Times' New Work Summit on Monday evening in New York, but the market will be flooded with new "human to human jobs" -- and we'll all reap the benefits. We'll also all have access to incredible healthcare, Altman believes. "Entire classes of jobs will go away and not come back," Altman said, arguing that human radiologists are becoming increasingly less reliable than computer algorithms.

It is widely known that India's job opportunities are not going at the same rate as its population. A recent report by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) revealed that the unemployment rate was close to a four-decade high of 6.1% during 2017-18, compared to 2.2% in 2011-12. An added worry is the industry-wide application of artificial intelligence and machine learning. According to a study by McKinsey Global Institute, AI-based intelligent agents and robots may eliminate 30% of the workforce across the globe by 2030. However, according to Sanjeev Bikhchandani, cofounder of Info Edge (which owns platforms such as Naukri.com

Most business leaders and entrepreneurs today realise that artificial intelligence (AI) is essential for the growth and competitiveness of their organizations. In fact, the AI technology will allow the rate of innovation and employee productivity improvements in Asia Pacific to nearly double (1.9 times, to be precise) by 2021, according to business leaders in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. These were some of the findings of a study from Microsoft and IDC Asia/Pacific, "Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia's Growth Potential Through AI", which surveyed over 1,600 business leaders and over 1,580 workers across 15 markets, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Among the industries polled included agriculture, automotive, education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, services and telco/media. Eight in 10 business leaders from companies with more than 250 staff agreed that AI is instrumental for their organization's competitiveness, the study said.

Most business leaders and entrepreneurs today realise that artificial intelligence (AI) is essential for the growth and competitiveness of their organizations. In fact, the AI technology will allow the rate of innovation and employee productivity improvements in Asia Pacific to nearly double (1.9 times, to be precise) by 2021, according to business leaders in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. These were some of the findings of a study from Microsoft and IDC Asia/Pacific, "Future Ready Business: Assessing Asia's Growth Potential Through AI", which surveyed over 1,600 business leaders and over 1,580 workers across 15 markets, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Among the industries polled included agriculture, automotive, education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, services and telco/media. Eight in 10 business leaders from companies with more than 250 staff agreed that AI is instrumental for their organization's competitiveness, the study said.

Rather than allowing employee concerns to continue to mount, CTOs should work alongside their counterparts across the wider c-suite to start laying the groundwork for every single human employee to play a more strategic/decision-making role as part of an AI-augmented workforce. When CTOs hear fears of AI replacing jobs over the next few years, their message should be that people are stepping away from the factory floor and into the foreman's office. How can organisations ensure that the adoption of artificial intelligence will drive the desired business outcomes? Kalyan Kumar, Corporate Vice President and CTO at HCL Technologies, provides his insight. When people discuss AI, opinions are usually polarised into one of the two extreme schools of thought – those who believe that AI will make our lives better, and those who are convinced it will accelerate human irrelevance, leading to the loss of jobs.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who's an accountant. He has his own accounting firm and lives an upper-class lifestyle in the Chicago suburbs. He said he will happily pay for his daughter's college education, provided she won't pursue a degree in accounting. This isn't the first time I've heard a parent say they don't want their child following in their career footsteps; a lawyer recently told me the same thing. And it's not because they feel they've been unsuccessful or that their career was too demanding.

AI replacing jobs - It does make for an interesting story. However, one major catch has been pointed out: there is not yet clear enough evidence that it's actually going to happen. Although, automation is not necessarily bad... Suppose it does occur - apart from making things faster with higher accuracy and efficiency, then won't automation through AI also create new categories of jobs? These are just some of the thoughts I had while watching the livestream of the #WatsonSummit in Auckland earlier this week. The one big, repeated theme from @ibmnz reinforced how #AI will augment rather than replace jobs or people.