(Gulipalli, 2019)
We are not strangers to the way AI is impacting our daily lives – both personally and professionally. We have been audience to the paranoia about AI taking away jobs and the optimism of AI creating jobs. While the jury is still out on the long-term impact of AI, we’re already seeing automation of several activities, ranging from driving to radiology. It’s becoming evident that no job will remain untouched by AI, though the degree of impact will differ from occupation to occupation.
Automation in the IT Industry
The technology industry, which is the catalyst of this change, will itself get transformed by AI. If you are an IT professional, you should be prepared as traditional IT careers will likely not exist in the future. Some activities will get automated, some augmented, and others eliminated. This will mean that some jobs will be lost, some created, and others transformed. If you're wondering how to prepare yourself for the AI era, below is a simple approach to redesign your careers.
Critically Assess Your Work Profile
Think of your job as a collection of connected activities. To start with, list the primary activities that you perform as part of your job. Critically evaluate each activity for its possibility of getting automated. If your answer is a yes to any of the below questions, then the activity might be a good candidate for automation. Does the activity primarily involve:
Performing a repetitive task that needs little or no human discretion
Identifying triggers, alerts, anomalies
Analyzing patterns in data, e.g. root cause analysis