Artificial intelligence experts have identified the key industries safest from being replaced by automated technology as some Australian workers find their jobs already being lost.
Nick Lothian, head of product at Verida, and Tom Finnigan, co-founder of Friyay.ai, have named eight jobs with the best chance of countering the growing use of artificial intelligence, or AI.
While repetitive and predictable jobs are already being replaced by technology, roles based on soft skills and personal interaction will prove more resilient in the face of change.
A 2023 survey found that a third of small businesses have replaced part of their workforce with AI, and another 56 percent are unsure how it will impact them.
Another study found that 67 percent of workers are already using these technologies in their workplaces without their bosses’ knowledge.
Artificial intelligence experts Nick Lothian, head of product at Verida, and Tom Finnigan, co-founder of Friyay.ai, told Daily Mail Australia that some jobs are more likely to survive artificial intelligence than others.
Experts say it will be difficult for AI to replace the adaptable workers who use interpersonal skills on the job, but positions that rely on data entry will quickly become irrelevant.
Jobs with acquired skills that require specific input from the customer are likely to withstand the AI “tsunami” that will reinvent the workplace in 10 years.
Mr Finnigan said the more educated workers are about new technology, the better prepared they will be to adapt and manage it.
“Most people are at risk from AI because they don’t know what’s coming,” he said.
“Does this mean that the impact of AI on business will be like a tsunami? Yeah.’
Plumbers, carpenters and craftsmen must be physically present on the job and must often communicate with clients to get the job done, meaning they are less likely to be influenced by artificial intelligence.
Plumbers and carpenters
Mr Lothian said the hands-on work the tradesmen do will ensure their work is safe for years to come.
“I don’t see plumbers being quickly replaced by AI, just like carpenters and all those jobs where you’re actually talking to the customer,” Mr Lothian said.
“This is something that will be very difficult to automate over a long period of time, especially if you also do the tooling work yourself.”
For example, plumbers rely on a close relationship with their clients and must know exactly how to solve problems, from complex to small.
Both experts agreed that human ingenuity and creativity will be one of the most difficult foundations to understand AI.
Mr Finnigan worked in television for 26 years before becoming a branding marketer and artificial intelligence expert, and he said he had yet to find a competent AI video editor.
Photographers, videographers and content editors
Mr Finnigan spent 26 years in television before moving into marketing and branding and then co-founding his own artificial intelligence company.
He also dabbled in photography, noting that automated programs have a long way to go to replicate what he can produce.
“As a cinematographer, in all my years of work, I have not found anything that would help me with video editing. There’s nothing,” he said.
“And I don’t like what he’s doing with the photo, but that might just be a personal choice.
“But at the end of the day, I still can’t shake the need to spend a lot of creative time thinking about how I create my ads, and AI won’t solve those problems for a while.”
Lawyers are a great example of how AI can enhance work rather than replace it, as it is capable of taking notes and creating briefs much faster than humans.
Lawyers
Mr. Finnigan described AI as having a “four or five-person staff” per program, but the downside is that the technology is limited to the brief directions and input provided by its user.
For law firms, where many interns and employees will collect and process documents, AI is already reducing the workload astronomically, but it still requires human enhancement.
“Most enterprises will see such a tool as a reduction in personnel and costs. However, the real advantage lies with those businesses that choose to find people who can build on top of them,” Mr Finnigan said.
“Suddenly your interns are now more valuable because humans can do things that AI can’t do logically or otherwise.”
Mr Lothian agreed with this assessment, but added that it was too early to tell how eagle lawyers would incorporate the technology into their profession.
“Lawyers always need to be on the ground talking to clients, but they also traditionally have to read a lot of information and then write shorter summaries. This type of work can be easily automated,” he said.
“So I’m not sure how this will affect the long term, such as whether it means fewer lawyers or whether it means they’ll be working on different types of cases, but it will definitely change quite quickly.”
“So there are some risks to employment, but it could actually mean the sector can grow because higher level tasks are much cheaper and easier to implement across more industries.”
“It’s very expensive to hire a high-level lawyer at the moment, but if they can serve a lot more clients at the same time, maybe it will become cheaper.”
Consultants, like lawyers, handle a lot of paperwork, but they still need to be present for their clients and understand their individual needs.
Consultants
Just as lawyers can scale up their business with AI, consultants can also achieve new levels of efficiency in their work.
Mr Lothian already finds some of the consulting work redundant, including creating spreadsheets and crunching numbers.
However, their soft skills are much more difficult to replicate as they move from client to client and often span completely different industries.
“More white-collar — consultant-type roles where you’re face-to-face with people presenting the job — you need a person in the driver’s seat,” he said.
“When they try to understand a customer’s problems and directly offer them solutions, people want to do business with people, especially when they’re paying a lot of money for it.
“So skills like these continue to be valuable and are becoming more valuable…”
Masseuses naturally require a lot of hands-on work that AI can’t replicate, but Mr Finnigan said AI could still help fill orders while workers look after clients.
Masseuses
The physical touch of a masseuse is unlikely to ever be replicated by a machine, and professionals once again have to consider the specific needs of their clients with each massage.
But order taking is clearly an aspect where AI complements work rather than replacing it.
“The massage business asked me what I could do for them,” Mr Finnigan said.
“I said, ‘Well, we could look at your customer book, and then when we get to an area with low orders, the AI could identify those people and send them a nice personalized email based on their order history to find out what they wanted. would be the same.”
“It doesn’t require hiring a single additional person and only requires an investment of $50,000, and this salon has filled its calendar for the year,” Mr. Finnigan said.
Although Stephen King is concerned that AI will destroy creativity, Mr Finnigan said he could give it a boost by creating a rough draft that would then be refined by its creator.
Creative and critical writers (Authors/Journalists)
Writers and creators are often most concerned about the longevity of their careers as AI gets smarter and faster, but Mr Finnigan insisted computers will never replace the originality of humans.
“Ten great minds in one room come up with amazing creative solutions, but 10 individuals doing artificial intelligence just can’t achieve it yet,” he said.
“I keep seeing Stephen Fry talk about AI taking away creativity.
“They talk about how they used to have a staff of 10 or 20 writers, and now that’s just not the economics anymore.
“Creatives always get final approval, so what you end up with is human creativity aided by artificial intelligence. Essentially, everyone is given superpowers.”
For fact-reporting journalists, Mr. Finnigan suggested using the technology to improve product quality.
By providing the AI with relevant information and the structure of an article, a journalist can get a draft within minutes, instead of working on it for hours.
‘Iimagine if you then spent the four hours you would have spent writing instead on drafting and editing, the quality of that article would improve significantly,” Mr. Finnigan added.
“Conversely, if you were willing to spend just an hour editing, you would quadruple the output in the same amount of time,” Mr. Finnigan said.