Many wonder what will happen to jobs and society in the coming years due to AI’s impact on our lives. While the Industrial Revolution transformed society gradually, AI is sparking public anxiety due to its rapid advancement and it’s potential to replace jobs globally. The big question is what will be our role as humans in this new age? One thing for sure is that we’ll adapt and thrive as we’ve always had, so let’s explore how.
Living in the frontiers of knowledge
AI systems will require a steady stream of fresh human activity to create relevant content and automations for our daily lives. This means that as we go about living, telling stories, and exploring new horizons, we’ll naturally generate the data AI needs to keep pace.
Artists will continue to create masterpieces, business teams will experiment with new strategies, and entrepreneurs will pursue new market opportunities. In this symbiotic relationship, we will have the power to guide AI’s evolution in directions that align with our interests, ideas, and vision.
Now, the value of past information will rapidly decline as AI makes it widely accessible at low cost and high speed. In this new age, those who continually push the boundaries of human knowledge and content will be highly rewarded. For example, AI video generators now pay YouTube creators for their unused footage to continue training their AI models. This is because they’ve already consumed all publicly available video content and need more to differentiate from competitors. As AI’s appetite for data grows, we’ll see this trend extend beyond video to other forms of content and knowledge, leading to new revenue streams over the coming decades.
In an era where vast amounts of information can be analyzed and explained in seconds, we will quickly identify gaps in human knowledge. Driven by curiosity, we’ll naturally explore these new areas more deeply, especially if we can be rewarded for our efforts.
Jobs will be more human and strategic
As technology automates repetitive tasks in our current jobs, we’ll have more time to take a step back and think clearly about the goals our roles and companies need to accomplish. We’re problem solvers by nature, so we’ll naturally gravitate to try out new strategies at work that ensure things get done well and on time.
We are already witnessing the early stages of the AI age, as tools that automate digital tasks gain widespread adoption. These tasks—including content creation, data analysis, and customer service—will become increasingly intelligent and autonomous over time. As a result, employees will transition into managers of these AI-driven tools, overseeing their operations and being accountable for their outcomes. This shift will require employees to excel in planning and supervising AI-driven work, while also creating new market opportunities for tools designed to monitor and optimize autonomous AI activity.
The next stages of the AI age will be propelled by the widespread adoption of robotic tools to automate physical tasks, both in our homes and across various fields such as medicine and logistics. As automation becomes more prevalent, tasks requiring high levels of human interaction will become increasingly valuable, as authentic human experiences become more rare. This shift will fuel growth in areas like leisure, sports, and entertainment, as well as in roles that involve operating complex machinery and performing intricate handwork.
What’s next
All this is just a glimpse of what we can see over the horizon. The next wave of entrepreneurship is expected to skyrocket at speeds that only the AI age can enable. Expect the creation of new companies, jobs, products, and industries that we can’t yet imagine. If this future makes you anxious, remember that success will come from doing what we’ve always done: adapting and thriving. Simply take a step back, think more strategically and explore new territories and opportunities beyond what we’re used to today.
Very insightful! I particularly like this idea that novelty and updated knowledge will be more rewarded than before.