With the Government promising £3.5billion in funding to help establish the UK as a science and tech powerhouse, AI has garnered more attention than ever in recent months. Whilst some critics claim that AI can help to “create better paid jobs and opportunities for people around the country”, others have suggested exactly the opposite. So, how will AI actually impact the future of tech jobs? Let’s take a look…
“At its most basic, AI is software that mimics and generates human behaviours – planning, generating ideas, understanding speech and visuals. Its ability to scale human intellect will have a profound impact.”
– Sulabh Soral, Chief AI officer at Deloitte Consulting
Since its inception in the 1950s, AI technology has advanced across the business world, and the UK tech sector is no exception. In simple terms, Artificial Intelligence is a machine’s ability to perform basic cognitive functions usually associated with human minds – from perceiving and learning to interacting with environments and creativity. If you’re someone who is open to exploring new technologies, it’s likely that you’ve already used some form of AI within your daily routine – perhaps Google Assistant, Alexa, Apple’s ‘Siri’, or even the customer service chatbots that automatically pop up on websites.
TechUK AI Adoption March 2023 report identified the UK as the third most significant destination the world for private AI investment; with almost £10.8 billion being invested by the private sector between 2013 and 2022. It is now about how the UK fully realises the benefits of AI and unleashes the vast potential of AI to create opportunities for businesses and society as a whole.
The first step to understanding how AI can advance tech businesses is knowing the categories that it has to offer.
Applied AI is the practical implementation of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, techniques, and technologies to problem-solve and achieve specific business objectives. This can immensely benefit tech businesses through automated processing, enhancing overall customer experience, data analysis, and predictive modelling.
Generative AI refers to a more creative approach, assisting with the generating of text, images, or other media in response to prompts – apps such as ChatGPT. It can be incredibly beneficial for marketers especially with content creation, creating personalised content, and even data augmentation.
Companies that lean into AI technologies can benefit from an evolved business offering, with areas such as Marketing, Sales, Product and Service Development, Operations, and IT/Engineering often seeing the most benefit from embracing AI.
How? Well, this is completely dependent on the use of AI within a business and the sector in question, but key advantages can include overall increased efficiency and productivity, Improved accuracy and decision making, and the creation of new job opportunities.
Though AI holds great potential for improving an array of industries, it also comes with inherent risks and challenges – the most significant being job displacement, security concerns, and AI bias. As AI and automation tech advances, the chance that some jobs become obsolete increases, and ensuring fairness and addressing bias in AI systems may also become a critical challenge.
The biggest question of all – Should you be concerned?
A recent blog by Harvey Nash highlights several key takeaways from their data leaders roundtable event, among which was that trusting the people responsible for AI development in businesses will make the right decisions.
Throughout this evolution of AI, it’s important to remember that the human touch remains essential. Machines are only being developed with a human’s intention in mind, focusing on AI’s ability to comprehend and convert human intention into digital software instructions. From existing Natural Language Processing (NLP) in virtual assistants and chatbots to high potentials of healthcare advancements, AI is poised to have a profound and transformative impact on the future of technology across its various sectors.
With AI assisting in repetitive workstreams, we might just have the answer to creating a more agile way of working, with a chance for tech business owners to focus on what really matters – the ability to create, innovate, and problem-solve.