The ghost of automation has long been haunting the job market.
Four years ago, when I entered the job market, remote working was booming. More businesses were opting to close their conventional workplaces to cut operational costs. Going remote was becoming a smart move among the startups that were already on a cost-cutting mission.
Entered AI, and things changed forever.
While most people debate whether AI has helped or harmed the economy, others believe that it has finally put a full stop to the remote job market. Now, businesses want employees to come back and work from their offices.
Is that a myth? Why do companies want employees back? What does AI have to do with this remote job shift? Keep reading as we explore all these questions in this write-up.
How AI Is Helping Remote Jobs
Since the advent of AI, nearly every industry has changed. From marketing to tech, we are seeing more AI tools coming into business. This also changed the job market. In fact, most of the job roles today require AI proficiency, apart from the required skills.
Moreover, apps and tools that they use to get their work done are coming up with AI integration to help users get a better user experience. Thanks to AI and internet advancements, people can work from anywhere and still offer maximum productivity.
AI has improved so much that you can easily use an AI translator to converse with anyone, in any language, and that too in real time. Now, there is no language barrier, and all it takes is a good AI tool to help with the process.
Of course, some companies like Optimum have a dedicated Spanish-speaking support, such as Optimum servicio al cliente for billing assistance.
Other companies rely on AI customer support services, such as Retell AI, Google Dialogflow CX, etc., to assist their customers in any language they prefer.
Why Companies Want to Bring People Back In-House
For so long now, companies have been in favor of cutting operational costs by offering remote jobs. But that’s changing now. Corporations want their employees to return to the office. Although there are multiple factors affecting this decision, the biggest of them all is AI.
One issue with the use of AI is that workers have more time to take on multiple new roles at other companies. A recent event of Soham Parekh has only added fuel to the fire. To give you a perspective, Soham is an Indian software engineer working remotely for multiple big tech companies. The incident came to light after the head of multiple companies reported him as their employee. This has sparked concerns about employee loyalty, work quality, and other limits that come with remote working.
Another incident is from the US, where a millennial IT worker had two full-time remote jobs and made up to $300,000 per year. Ironically enough, one of his job responsibilities was to track down other employees who were doing exactly what he was doing. Eventually, he resigned due to fear of being caught by the internal monitoring systems. He admitted that AI-powered tools allowed him to automate large portions of his work, freeing up time for a second job.
These two incidents indicate how, because of AI, companies are now bringing their teams back to physical offices.
Will AI Replace Humans?
Currently, the debate is no longer about remote working. Instead, it has long been shifted to the haunting question of replacement. Most experts believe that AI will indeed replace humans in the workforce; however, it will take a lot of time to reach the level of complete autonomy.
We are currently noticing more companies switching their repetitive tasks from completely manual to fully automated. Following this trend, complex tasks will also shift to automation in a few years. Already, there are automated software engineering tools available in the market, like Jarvis. However, there is no way to completely shift the end-to-end operations of any company to automation because there is always a need for human intervention.
Simply put, AI is a transformational force behind most of the industries today. While it is a common notion that AI is affecting remote job marketing and may even end up replacing employees. Experts believe that it has a long way to go, and even then, the requirements of work will get quite complex, so that AI will not be able to complete that. On the contrary, repetitive and non-creative tasks will be mainly handled by AI for better productivity and efficiency.
