Listened to this podcast yesterday, and would love to hear middle/upper management’s opinion on how AI is replacing entry level jobs, and what that will mean for companies in the future. As a 2022 grad, it really inspires the feeling of catching the last chapter out of ‘nam lol: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/ai-is-coming-for-entry-level-jobs/e9f9eb31-14ad-498d-94f3-11ce91e9c464
Step 1 - Eliminate the jobs.
Step 2 - Rehire the jobs in India.
Step 3 - Announce you replaced the jobs with AI.
This is the playbook every CEO is following nowadays, whether in Consulting, Tech, Finance, or Industry.
AI stands for Actual Indians so they're not wrong... 🤔
We can look at the impact on the legal field as an initial indicator.
Law is complex, but services like Legal Zoom and early stages of AI/ML, didn't eliminate junior attorneys, but it did in many cases reduce the number of new associates that firms needed to hire. This reduces the top of the funnel into firms and reduces the early stage career opportunities where many new lawyers would develop their early stage knowledge (I believe this was HBR research).
Ultimately, my view of the impact of AI is regularly changing. There are certain areas that I see as being repetitive and much easier to automate, but to get there also means that areas of the organization really need to have massive master and transactional data overhauls.
If I was graduating high school today, I would likely choose a trade like plumbing, electrical, and most likely I would have trained as a machinist. Trade skills are in high demand and I would likely supplement that with an accounting / business course of study. I don't think AI will be transformative in the next 5 years but 10-15 years in the future, there are a lot of entry level roles that are going to be nearly eliminated by automation.
Chief
I’m curious to see how it works. With every job they kill, they are also removing their customers. If people don’t have income; how would they pay for the next nonsense Zuckerberg puts out there ?
We should have implemented UBI years ago. But in our capitalist system, anything that benefits everyone gets dismissed as “socialism” and shut down. Not to sound alarmist, but I truly believe if we stay on this path, only the most privileged or the most ruthless will survive.
I feel for new grads. This is so messed up!! A decade+ worth of schooling and being told to go to college, study this and you'll get a job, and AI changes everything.
I hear consultants here say things like "AI won't replace us, it'll augment us." When you've got big names like the Ford CEO saying it'll replace half of all white collar jobs, maybe you should listen.
You don't even need "prompting" anymore. When I can type or speak whatever you want into ChatGPT and get better results than a new grad, it makes sense people are hiring fewer new grads.
@D4 agreed the job market will correct itself, but for me it’s a question of when. If it takes 5 years of cutting before new low skill jobs emerge, then you can just say it’s going to eliminate a lot of the workforce.