3 experts predict how AI will change the workplace

Will AI replace humans in the workplace? Maybe not mass replacement of jobs, but we’ll have to learn how to work together with technology. 

During Fortune Brainstorm AI in San Francisco on Monday crypto editor Jeff John Roberts sat down with a group of experts to talk about how AI and machine learning are disrupting the workforce and redefining productivity. 

“The technology is advancing very fast,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, professor and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. “What we’ve seen already is impressive, but there are things in the pipeline that are even gonna blow that away. The bottleneck is in transferring that into changes in business organization and capturing the value and that’s where we still need a lot of work.” 

What do companies want the most when it comes to AI and ML? To enable their workforce to upskill and rescale and to provide insight on the future, said Shane Luke, VP of product and engineering, head of AI and machine learning at Workday. A lot of companies are thinking, “‘In 10 years, I don’t even know what my workforce is going to need to be able to do,’” Luke explained. “How do we get ahead of that problem? We can use AI to do it, while AI is also changing the way people work today.”

As companies decide on use cases for AI and ML, there also needs to be more communication for employees on the purpose of the technology. For example, a recent Pew Research Center report found that 52% of Americans surveyed said the increased use of AI in daily life makes them feel more concerned than excited, an increase from 38% in December 2022. Gallup found the “fear of becoming obsolete, or FOBO” in the workplace due to AI is most expressed by college-educated workers. The percentage of those worried in that group increased from 8% in 2021 to 20% in 2023, according to a recent Gallup report. 

“I don’t really see any mass unemployment or mass replacement of whole occupations,” Brynjolfsson said during the panel session. “What I see is specific tasks will be enabled by this technology. People who can look at large-scale problem solving, have broad creativity, can apply these technologies in new ways, and have their skills augmented are going to do really well.” Ultimately, the technology for most people is going to be “something that allows them to do more and better rather than replacing and downscaling,” he said. 

Among the skills needed for the future include “critical thinking, problem-solving, and deductive reasoning because AI is actually already pretty good at that,” said Atif Rafiq, founder and CEO of Ritual.work and author of Decision Sprint.

“You gather a six-person team and you say, ‘Come back to me in a month with our strategy and a set of recommendations and be able to defend it,’” Rafiq explained. But, “you can do that, probably in two days, with today’s technology,” Rafiq said. He added, the question then becomes, what are the people doing? People can tap the AI as the first draft, and then make it better, he said. Most companies aren’t doing that yet, Rafiq said. 

“I’m still a big believer in the STEM fields,” Luke said. “You hear a lot of people talking about disruption, saying because you can generate code with models, maybe software engineering goes away. I don’t think so at all.”

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Jawad Ahsan, CFO and principal accounting officer at Offerpad Solutions (NYSE: OPAD), a real-estate platform, will depart the company, effectively immediately, according to a Tuesday regulatory filing. Ashan, who joined in company in July, is "not eligible to receive severance or other separation payments or benefits in connection with his separation from the company," the filing states. And his departure is "not the result of any disagreement with the company or any matter related to the company's financials or operations," according to Offerpad. James Grout, SVP of finance, will serve as principal financial officer on an interim basis. 

Eric J. Guerin was named CFO at RB Global, Inc. (NYSE: RBA), an omnichannel marketplace for commercial assets and vehicles, effective Jan. 15. Guerin most recently served as the CFO of Veritiv Corporation, until its acquisition in November. Before Veritiv, he served as EVP and CFO of CDK Global, Inc. Guerin previously served as division VP of finance for Corning Incorporated. 

Big deal

A global survey by Gartner, Inc. highlighted the top talent attraction and retention challenges facing CFOs and finance leaders. Of the 462 finance employees surveyed who changed employers in recent years, unsatisfactory pay and career opportunities, coupled with management issues, were among the top reasons they left their jobs. Over the past five quarters, most finance employees who left due to dissatisfaction with future career opportunities cited few open or available roles at the company, according to Gartner. 

“To meet their transformation ambitions, finance leaders need far more digitally savvy talent than they can hire, and at the same time likely have a pool of disengaged employees looking for better opportunities," Shannon Cole, senior director analyst, research, in the Gartner Finance practice, said in a statement. "Providing on-the-job learning that boosts the function’s digital competencies could yield multiple and mutual benefits."

Going deeper

The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended in a deal that saw a commitment from nearly 200 countries to transition away from all fossil fuels for the first time. The UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber, president of this year's COP28 conference, brokered the agreement on Wednesday. Under the deal, countries are called to contribute to a global transition effort instead of being outright compelled to make that shift on their own.

Overheard

“There’s so much dialogue about risks of all sorts. Yes, we need to pay attention—and be in the dialogue about—the risks, but the real important thing is to not fumble the future.”

—LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said of overthinking the risks of AI in the process of transformative innovation during Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference on Tuesday. Hoffman is also a former OpenAI board member, a Greylock Capital partner, and Inflection AI cofounder.