As the threat of artificial intelligence stealing jobs looms, employees are future-proofing their careers by specifically applying for job ads with AI mentioned in their listings—because if you can’t beat AI, you might as well join it.
That’s according to LinkedIn’s research, which shows that during the past two years job posts on the networking platform that mention AI or Generative AI received 17% higher application growth than job posts that do not mention AI.
“Candidates are savvy,” said Erin Scruggs, vice president of global talent acquisition at LinkedIn. “They’re showing they want to go where opportunities are.”
It’s why she recommends companies detail their AI plans in their job ads—even if the role advertised isn’t involved in the plans—or risk losing top talent.
“I would consider it a requirement for most companies to share at least a basic roadmap of their AI strategy in job posts to keep up with the market,” Scruggs added.
What’s more, companies around the world should take note: LinkedIn’s conclusion that jop postings mentioning AI are hot on the market was based on data drawn from English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Turkish, and Chinese-written ads.
Join the AI bandwagon—or risk being replaced
The rush to jump on the AI bandwagon comes as fears mount that automation will wipe out millions of jobs. Just last week, Tesla and X owner, Elon Musk told the U.K. AI Safety Summit that AI will one day eradicate employment.
“You can have a job if you want to have it for personal pleasure. But AI could do everything,” Musk told Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak. “I don’t know if people are comfortable or uncomfortable with that.”
At the same time, investment bank Goldman Sachs has estimated that AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs globally in the coming years. Meanwhile, IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna predicted “repetitive, white-collar jobs” will be automated first.
But, he added, that doesn’t mean humans will be out of jobs. “People mistake productivity with job displacement,” he said at Fortune’s CEO Initiative conference.
As an example, he points to jobs created by the invention of the internet. “In 1995 no one thought there would be five million web designers—there are,” Krishna said.
It’s why Reddit’s former CEO, Yishan Wong advised workers concerned about being replaced by AI to futureproof their roles by side-stepping into the industry because it doesn’t require “an enormous amount of technical skill.”
“Nontechnical people can build pretty valuable and novel applications in AI,” he told Fortune. “There’s this enormous amount of leverage that an individual can have.”
Similarly, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang recently suggested that AI will “generate jobs”—with the caveat that while people might not lose their jobs to AI, they’ll likely lose it to another human using AI.
It’s the one thing leaders can seemingly agree on—and judging by LinkedIn’s research, workers know it too.
“AI may not replace managers, but the managers that use AI will replace the managers that do not,” IBM’s chief commercial officer Rob Thomas said during a press conference. “It really does change how people work.” Likewise, the economist Richard Baldwin echoed, “AI won’t take your job” during a panel at the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Growth Summit. “It’s somebody using AI that will take your job.”
