Is this a great time to be looking for a tech job or what!? But for every fantasy job, like the $100-million AI jobs Meta is supposedly offering, there are hundreds of tech workers who have kissed their six-figure positions goodbye and thousands of clerical staffers who will no longer be making five-figure annual incomes.
There’s one little problem with all these job cuts. We still don’t know whether AI can deliver the work goods. Sure, some jobs, such as repetitive HR or call-center work, can be largely replaced. Heck, we’ve seen that happen before. I remember when many call-center jobs were located in the US — before companies figured out that outsourcing such jobs to low-cost countries was cheaper. For jobs like these, AI is just the next step in cost-cutting.
Companies often use AI like that — to cut costs. Not many are using it to help good workers become great workers. Instead, CEOs are buying the illusion that AI can magically replace highly skilled workers.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
