Week 7- MBA6101-AI in the Workplace

 AI in the Workplace

With technology rapidly increasing and becoming more advanced, it has crossed many minds that technology will be used in all facets of life and when it comes to the workplace, will replace jobs. This has been evident over the last century with machinery, computers and now, artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the intelligence demonstrated by technology. With the price of labor increasing, many businesses are looking at investing in AI rather than investing in the work force where the price is high and can lead to human errors. This can be seen in small distributors where AI is now automatically allocating reports, whereas before, someone was doing it by hand. Or in a manufacturing plant where parts were assembled by a team but can now be done with smart technology. 

According to Dr Todd Kelsey, the increase in AI should not replace jobs, but actually create more jobs. These jobs might be more skilled or could actually be used to generate revenue instead of being an expense. Many of these jobs that could be replaced would be more manual, low skill related positions. Education and training would be required to move these employees from these jobs to more skilled roles, thus also increasing salaries due to the new acquired skills learned. Not only does AI impact efficiency and productivity, but it also impacts the economy due to the supply and demand of the work force. 

In my day-to-day role, I am helping businesses become more efficient. With the current labor shortage, these businesses aren't able to keep up with orders and this is impacting the customer experience. We are working with them to use AI, automation and technology to fill in the gaps where they might be experiencing bottlenecks. This investment will improve operating expenses but will also increase throughput with the labor shortage.