Take 5 for Tech

AI & Career Forecast: AI Series #7 (2.28.24)

After attending Dr. Bill Daggett's AI presentation and reading a lot on the subject, I have found a few repeating themes in the world of artificial intelligence as it pertains to the workforce.

The first one is rather unsettling. Experts explain that there are two paths this AI revolution can take. One path is the severe displacement of labor and jobs at a very startling rate. The other path is a more pro-labor route and one that enhances human productivity, allowing for greater and new occupational tasks. This secondary AI model could free workers of clerical portions of the job to do more creative and thoughtful tasks. Several articles explained this occupational crossroads. MIT published an interesting study called "Can We Have Pro-Worker AI?: choosing a path of machines in service of minds" that investigates this idea. It also includes a section about what can be done to protect human labor. Another good resource comes from Stanford Social Innovation Review. As it stands now, experts agree that we aren't following the path that benefits people, but rather the former one that provides catastrophic job loss.

The second theme is that with the rise of AI, skills and competencies become more essential than credentials. Experts explain that much of career competency and learning will occur on the job, innately making the importance of specific credentials and degrees less important over time. An eye-opening study called "Generative AI & the Future of Work in America" comes from McKinsey Global Institute is absolutely worth the read.

The last message is that within education, teachers need to methodically, thoughtfully and deliberately teach students how to adapt and prepare for careers that will evolve due to this AI revolution. Teachers need to teach skills that provide the foundation for success, but that haven't been historically emphasized in school. It's this idea that Dr. Daggett emphasizes in this statement, "Whether we like it or not, we better prepare kids to do what the technology can't do." (41:45) These skills, specifically the 56 Foundational Skills, are nicely outlined in the image below. Here's the portion of Dr. Daggett's address to AASA (The School Superintendent's Association) where he explains more.

A common AI message is one of caution. Experts warn us that it's still premature to understand the outlook of of AI in the workplace. They also agree that AI will have a powerful effect on the future workforce and say that now is the time, while AI is still in its infancy, to make conscious choices that still make human involvement essential and relevant. They explain that our choices today will either enhance or endanger our students' future careers. Regardless of our position on AI, that's a compelling statement.

McKinsey Global Institute Report

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Will AI Replace Colorado Teachers? (Article)

Dr. Daggett Address & 56 Essential Skills

And that aforementioned massive job loss prediction is the reason why teachers must teach students to do what the AI cannot. And what are those skills that students need that computers cannot do? Researchers at McKinsey & Company concluded that all the essential skills students would need in the future fall into four categories:

Cognitive
Interpersonal
Self-leadership
Digital

Those four were then broken into 13 additional skill groups. Collectively they were able to identify 56 Foundational Skills that are important today, but even more essential in the future. This study was shared by Dr. Bill Daggett in the same video as below. Here's the video all cued up at this part of his presentation. (Video)