AI in the workplace: Which professions will face redundancies?

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In our society's quest to improve day-to-day work, artificial intelligence is gradually making its mark. In its various forms, it is already used by many professionals and embodies a new technological revolution.

But when we talk about revolution, we're also talking about upheaval. For Bill Gates, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) will change the world, just like the computer or the Internet.

This upheaval will not only lead to the emergence of new professions but also inevitably to the replacement or even elimination of some existing ones.

The question then arises: which professions have already been affected by this revolution, and to what extent are they under threat?

In this second episode of AI 101, we've chosen to talk about three professions impacted by different types of artificial intelligence: actors, teachers and artists.

Does the episode "Joan is awful" from the last season of Black Mirror ring a bell?

The series is (again) inspiring reality: this summer, Hollywood suggested that actors could give up their image to become virtual avatars. With their agreement, they'd become digital beings that could be bent to their will.

Can we compete with AI?

As far as teachers are concerned, the threat is called ChatGPT.

According to several studies, AI used in education could considerably change teaching (Ma et al., 2014; VanLehn, 2011). 

This is particularly true because of adaptive learning, which is when teaching methods are automatically personalised to allow the learner to best meet his or her needs. Adaptive learning is already being developed on tools programmes such as ChatGPT.

For artists and graphic designers, it's already becoming increasingly difficult to compete with text-to-art tools like Dall-E or MidJourney, which can generate an array of images. 

For the professionals concerned, these recent advances have already become associated with economic disaster.

In light of this digital revolution, there is a growing sense of anxiety within many sectors, but there is also a strong desire to adapt. 

Many professionals, like Pengcheng Shi, Associate Dean of the Rochester Institute of Technology in the USA, prefer to think of AI as an ally, rather than an enemy.

"As a teacher, I'm optimistic," he says. "I do think certain teachers' functions will be replaced, but artificial intelligence will continue to help us with our work. But for that to happen, we need to adapt to it, not reject it".

To find out more, watch our video above.