Artificial intelligence is the most disruptive technology of the 21st century. Nearly 2 years in, no one fully knows what to make of it. Could it be the technology that will make jobs that used to be the sole domain of thinking humans irrelevant?
So far AI job displacement has been relatively minimal. Perhaps some individuals have been replaced by artificial intelligence tools, but AI has not erased jobs from the map completely.
That said, it’s not hard to imagine a day when certain manual tasks that can easily be fully automated will no longer exist. Are our entry-level jobs safe? In this article, we will take a comprehensive look at the question of how AI will influence the future of the job market—particularly in the context of tech careers.
Are Entry-level Jobs Safe?
It depends on the job. Customer service is a great example of a career path that is primarily entry-level and could be fully automated by artificial intelligence. At the most basic level, customer service agents are there to relay company policies and assist with returns and exchanges. This job, though important, is not necessarily something that companies need a human to be doing.
AI-powered chat platforms have been doing similar tasks even before generative AI witnessed its most recent developments.
Customer service departments still exist, and most likely will for the foreseeable future.
Why? Because smart companies don’t just use customer service as a way of communicating policy. They use it as a tool to form lasting connections.
Some brands even use it as a way of generating revenue. For example, let’s say that you own an e-commerce fashion brand. You sell high-end clothing that people would historically have purchased in person at the store.
Some of your customers are apprehensive about spending a lot of money on a shirt that they can’t physically see. They might reach out to a customer service agent to get their input and receive more personalized product recommendations.
CX agents upsell. They forge legitimate relationships with customers that turn into repeat business. Some companies, most famously Zappos use CX as part of their branding.
You can’t do that if you are laying off your CX department and replacing it with some boilerplate ChatGPT-powered program.
So Entry-level Positions are Safe?
We didn’t say that either. Let’s instead imagine a data entry job that involves taking information that has been input into multiple servers and compiling it in a single database.
Jobs like this have existed over the years, but they don’t really make sense in a world where technology integrates and algorithms can do the same task quicker and with greater accuracy. There is no need for a personal touch. There is no reason to keep this person on the payroll.
The permanence of entry-level positions ultimately depends on the value that they provide the company. CX agents make a contribution to the brand that extends beyond the sum of parts. Data entry specialists don’t.
That means that they may be replaced. This is not unique to AI. Companies are constantly looking for ways to replace paid labor with automation or more efficient processes.
For example, grocery stores have been working on reducing their number of cashiers for years. They do this with self-checkout lines.
However, the experiment has been met with mixed results. Target recently announced an effort to roll back its self-checkout experience citing both reduced customer service and higher incidents of theft. In this case, an entry-level position had value beyond the context of its job description.
On the other hand, grocery stores are also replacing human labor with machines in the form of robots that can do inventory and other basic manual tasks.
No one is terribly worried about rolling back because it doesn’t influence the company’s bottom line in a negative way.
Entry-level employees who are worried about the future of their jobs may need to think long and hard about the value that they bring to the position. Do they offer something that is truly irreplaceable? Will the company value that contribution more than they value saving money?
If the answer is no, don’t panic. Lean into the value of upskilling and continuing education.
Upskilling
AI is not ready to replace software engineers. It may replace the people who support their efforts with low-level manual tasks. If you fall into that category of employment look for ways you can develop new skills that will make yourself more useful.
Upskilling does not always require getting a new degree. In certain cases, you will be able to expand your credentials through “skill boot camp”. These programs help you learn new things in a controlled timeline. For example, you might learn a new computer language in six weeks instead of getting an entirely new degree over four years.
The value of skill boot camp opportunities will depend at least in part on what your credentials were going in.
Tech companies do prioritize skill over academic accomplishment, but some positions will still require you to have at least a bachelor’s degree. This will be particularly useful to have if you are concerned about hanging onto an entry-level job.
Conclusion
Are entry-level tech jobs going away? Probably not today. At least not all of them. Still, the writing is on the wall. AI isn’t the only problem. The workplace changes constantly. If you want enduring relevance, you need to continue growing, learning, and expanding your skill sets. It is only through this process of constant improvement that you can guarantee each job, security tech, and other industries.