Cisco Systems president Jeetu Patel reiterated his belief that artificial intelligence will expand employment opportunities rather than trigger mass job losses. In a post shared on social media plans X (formerly known as Twitter) Patel said, “I’ve been saying this for months, and the early data is beginning to support it. Five years from now, I believe AI will create more jobs than it eliminates.” Patel is of the opinion that AI does not eliminate the need for human contribution but instead it shifts challenges to new parts of the workflow. When AI accelerates one process, organisations require people to solve new constraints and capture additional value. “Automation does not eliminate the need for human contribution. It often reveals how much more could be accomplished with it,” he wrote.
AI fluency as workforce divide
Patel also emphasised that the biggest divide in the future workforce will be between those who can effectively use AI and those who cannot. He also added that AI-fluent workers could be 50x or even 100x more effective” in certain roles compared to peers without AI skills. Patel also dismissed the notion that society has a fixed amount of work, arguing that lower costs from technology spur new products, markets and opportunities.He also predicted that the future will have more jobs, but they will not be the same roles performed in the same way by people with the same skills. He has also urged the policymakers and businesses to prioritise AI skills development rather than attempting to shield workers from technological change.
Read Cisco president Jeetu Patel’s complete post here
I’ve been saying this for months, and the early data is beginning to support it. Five years from now, I believe AI will create more jobs than it eliminates.That may sound counterintuitive. But the data is proving this theory. Here are some factors worth considering.AI is exposing new human bottlenecksWhen one part of a workflow becomes dramatically faster, the constraint simply moves elsewhere. Organizations then need more people to remove the next bottleneck and capture the value AI has unlocked.Automation does not eliminate the need for human contribution. It often reveals how much more could be accomplished with it.AI fluency will become one of the world’s most valuable skillsThe emerging divide will not be between humans and agents. It will be between people who are highly fluent with AI and those who are not.AI-fluent people will not be 10% more productive. In some forms of work, they could be 50x or even 100x more effective. They will imagine better uses for AI, orchestrate agents and apply judgment where machines still fall short.These people will be scarce and enormously valuable.Productivity creates demandThe assumption behind mass unemployment is that the amount of work the world needs is fixed.It isn’t.When technology becomes dramatically cheaper and easier to create, we do not simply produce the same amount with fewer people. We build more products, start more companies, solve previously uneconomic problems and serve markets that could never be served before.AI will lower the cost of ambition.The real risk, therefore, is not that humanity runs out of work. It is that millions of people are not prepared for how quickly the nature of work changes.The future will likely have more jobs. But they will not be the same jobs, performed in the same way, by people with the same skills.The imperative is not to protect people from AI. It is to help every person become fluent in it.
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