podcast - common assignment - final

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving and can perform tasks that traditionally require human cognitive capabilities. Companies benefit from AI by making data-driven decisions, reducing human error, and improving productivity and customer experiences. However, AI also poses a threat to employees and future applicants, potentially leading to job displacement and unemployment. It is important to find a middle ground by implementing regulations that ensure employees are trained for AI instances and create an environment where employees and AI can coexist. Ethical deployment of AI is crucial to prioritize the well-being of people and the growth of technology. Hello, my name is Colleen Beardino and today we're here to talk about the scary yet exciting changing world of AI. If you've never heard of AI before, where have you been? Seriously though, where have you been? Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving. The Dive blog created a post titled, Artificial Intelligence for Dummies, which defines AI as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. These machines are designed to mimic human intelligence and behaviors, enabling them to learn from experience, adapt from new information, and perform tasks that traditionally require human cognitive capabilities. What we're here to talk about today revolves around that last sentence of this definition. AI can adapt to new information and perform tasks that traditionally require human cognitive capabilities. The exponential growth of AI in the past few years has started to raise questions of who will be affected by this in the future. Could something like this take my job? There are many different types of AI that are present today, including reactive machines, artificial general AI, which has the ability to learn and adapt, and self-aware AI, which is still growing and adapting each day. Exposure to applications like chat, GBT, or image generation platforms have become very popular among people who are new to exploring AI capabilities. There are always two sides to every story, and we must look at all different perspectives when looking into the future of artificial intelligence. Today we are going to talk about stakeholder one, benefits of AI to companies, and stakeholder two, future employees and applicants being affected by AI in the employment industry. The first stakeholder we will look at are the companies beginning to use AI and how it benefits them. Companies' popularity and exposure to its benefits increase as AI grows. Many companies rely on data-driven decisions that help give company insight. Whether this is efficiently sorting through surveys with AI's consistent speed and accuracy, many tedious business tasks have become quick, no-brainer tasks for artificial intelligence software to complete. A TechTarget article titled, 12 Key Benefits of AI for Businesses, shares that AI's capacity to take in and process massive amounts of data in real time means organizations can implement near-instantaneous monitoring capabilities to alert them to issues, recommend actions, and in some cases, even initiate a response. According to experts, not only is this a time-saver for many companies, but it is also a budget-cutter. Many companies have entire departments or select employees responsible for customer issues, resolving online bugs, and alerting company leaders of issues. With the use of generative AI in these departments, there is an exponential shrink in demand for actual humans to lead these departments. With companies paying lower salary expenses, they can allocate extra money to other departments. Saving this caliber of funds could lead to an exponential change and benefit to many businesses. Another topic in the conversation about AI is reducing human error. Humans are imperfect beings who can make mistakes. For saying having a bad day, running late to work, AI is an automated system that can perform repetitive tasks without error or tiring. This creates a shortened amount of time and second-guessing that needs to be allocated to some work for companies. One fascinating statistic from the Forbes Advisor article titled, How Businesses Are Using Artificial Intelligence in 2024, is that 97% of business owners believe chatGBT will help their businesses. With AI aiding businesses, productivity levels have gone up. Forbes mentions that these changes have also positively affected many companies' customer experiences, noticing fewer complaints and dissatisfaction. I think that this might have to do with the consistency of AI technology. Overall, many companies are just starting to reap the benefits that artificial intelligence offers for the workplace. After looking at all of this, this just about wraps up my summary of why companies are benefiting from artificial intelligence. And now I think it's important we're going to look at the opposing view of this debate. With all of these benefits to companies using artificial intelligence, there's always another side to the story. In this hand, the second stakeholder that we're going to look at today is regarding the effect that AI has on employees and future applicants to some companies. The benefit to companies come down to the work that AI can do without the help of humans. So what happens to those jobs companies no longer need a human for? Oxford University shares that artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs and that at least 14% of employees globally could need to change their careers due to digitization, robotics, and even AI advancements. This change to the employment industry could harm many people and families. Many people go to school and college to study specific sectors for which to work. For example, what you're majoring in will then lead to where you're employed. With specific jobs being taken over by AI, some people who have worked in the same job for years might be displaced because of their lack of training in that area. This could put many people in the workforce out of jobs without the skill sets of jobs that are evolving and needed. Some common examples of jobs being replaced by artificial intelligence are going to be shared as follows. First, many companies are using artificial intelligence in place of receptionists. Some AI is actually capable of listening and interacting and even redirecting customers. Receptionists for years have been known as essential and important jobs for many businesses. These jobs are now being replaced by AI. The second type of job that is popularly replaced is retail workers. Sophisticated self-checkout systems are replacing cashiers, which is a very common job for people who are sometimes lacking education or teenagers. This pertinently comes to mind for me as a teenager who once had a job in a grocery store. I think it's essential for high schoolers and younger generations to be able to grow up and mature with these types of jobs, which are now being replaced by AI. The third type of job we will look at are accountants slash bookkeepers. These are also being replaced with AI services that can quickly provide bookkeeping based on algorithms. Becoming a qualified accountant takes a year of school and lots of money for that schooling. There are also many exams needed to be passed. For this service to be fully automated would hurt many people. Many other jobs are being affected by AI, but these are just some examples. Why is this such a bad thing, you might ask? Although newer employees can learn and adapt to these changes, the fewer jobs available, the higher the unemployment rate. Another perspective of this is the less jobs, how will this affect the economy? The economy might be hurt because there will be less spending in exchange of goods as people may become deferred for their jobs. Although this is not a concrete effect right now, it's an interesting perspective to consider for the future. All of these factors go into why the effects of AI are hurting many people in the workplace. Looking at the two stakeholders' perspectives, I've gained a new perspective on how AI will affect the employment industry. Artificial intelligence is an excellent addition to many companies for its consistent and repetitive ability to analyze data, organize information, brainstorm, innovate, and even take phone calls. With all of these great benefits, I do sympathize with the millions of people whose jobs are at risk from these investments. I also want to bring up something that's crossed my mind while conducting my research. Yes, AI is consistent and effective, but having real, passionate, and emotional people as a part of your company should be considered invaluable. Humans bring emotion and new perspectives that can't be replaced with a computer. I think that this is a differentiator that cannot be ignored. With all of the benefits of AI, even as a college student studying business at Temple University, I have thought of the threat of AI in my future job opportunities. So how can we solve this problem? Finding a good middle ground between allowing AI growth and ensuring only a few jobs are displaced is an essential idea. I propose that there are new regulations put in place or that the government enacts an artificial intelligence act. These regulations would ensure that employees are not being replaced, but trained for AI instances, ensuring that companies can still grow the use of AI, and more importantly, creating an environment where employees and AI can coexist, gaining the most benefits from both aspects. Buchanan published an article titled, AI in the Workplace, Important Considerations and Things Employers Need to Do. This article shares some regulations and progress being made right now that aligns with just these processes. But President Biden's October 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI Intelligence Task, the National Institute of Standards and Technology with developing guidelines, best practices, and testing standards for safe and ethical deployment of AI. What I like most about this advancement is the inclusion of the words ethical deployment. As a country and world, we must prioritize the growth and technology of AI while prioritizing the people and employees who live here. Ethics and morality are extremely important parts of a business and how it runs. These cannot be ignored when talking about the growth in AI. This really wraps up my view on AI in the workplace and some new solutions that I think are a great idea to embrace. I hope everyone enjoyed my podcast on the growing role of artificial intelligence and how it will affect the future. Today, we focused on two different stakeholders regarding AI's growth. We examined how different business models and companies can benefit from AI and how this might negatively affect people and their employment potential. Overall, I think it is essential that everyone knows that AI is not going away, so instead of running away from it, we should embrace it smartly and safely. I hope everyone enjoyed this podcast and that you can take the research I have presented to create your own opinions. Until next time on my podcast, have a great night. Go Owls!