AI may impact high-skilled professional jobs the most in SG

SINGAPORE: Contrary to conventional thinking that low and middle-skilled jobs are first in line to be affected by artificial intelligence (AI), a new study shows that it is high-skilled professional jobs in prime digital hubs that may be impacted the most by the rising technology.

The results from a four-year-long study from 2019 to 2023 of AI adoption patterns in numerous hubs, including Silicon Valley, Singapore, and London, were discussed last week at the Digital Futures of Work Global Conference 2023. They showed that AI-driven corporate innovation targets high-skilled professional work, with domain skills like consulting and marketing and tasks such as decision-making being put through “cognitive capture.”

This process, which includes automation, standardization, and distribution, uses AI to copy how people’s minds read structured documents, reported Yahoo! Finance on Monday (Nov 6). Professor Phillip Brown, the Director of the Digital Futures of Work Research Programme and a Distinguished Research Professor from Cardiff University, said, ”Societal leaders must ensure that the right questions about AI and the future of work are being asked and adapted accordingly.

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In Singapore, the study found that innovation at the corporate level is being applied to jobs for professionals with high levels of education and training, as well as professional experience and judgement. Field engineering services, curriculum design and consultancy services, and credit decision-making are among the jobs where tasks are undergoing automation, standardization, and redistribution.

Yahoo! Finance pointed out that it may be inferred from the study that cognitive capture could decrease the demand for professional labour. Data from 4,218 resident job holders who participated in polls in 2021 and 2022 show that technological changes are advantageous for managerial roles but carry risks for professional roles while having only a small impact on the jobs of other workers.

The study noted that collaboration must take place between public and private sectors, as well as individuals, to make sure that innovations to AI, of which more are certain to come, should be sustainable and beneficial to everyone.

“The use of AI technologies to make professional work more cost-efficient is evident. When coupled with existing data that technological change has been weakening professional jobs and not enhancing other types of work, it underlines the pressing need that we manage the AI transition more deliberately towards shared prosperity,” said Sahara Sadik, the Assistant Director for Research at  Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), as well as the Deputy Director of the Digital Futures of Work Research Programme.

Chia Ying, senior researcher at IAL, said,  “This has implications on the learning they will be motivated to seek. The use of AI technologies to enhance jobs, skills, and learning needs to be pursued more decisively.” /TISG

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