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Previous Post｜A Clear Vision or a Fuzzy Future? Navigating AI's Impact on Workplace [AI Ready] #1
Do you remember Tesla's humanoid robot "Optimus Gen 2", unveiled last December?
This robot, which gained attention for its natural walking and delicate hand movements, was recently deployed at a Tesla factory, where it was organizing parts of the products. When we hear news like this, it’s easy to think that the day when AI-powered robots take over even your colleagues' jobs is not far off.
Especially in recent times, articles like "Top 10 Jobs AI Will Replace" have been flooding the media, and with news of large-scale layoffs at some companies, workers initially couldn't help but feel a sense of rejection towards AI. It was a primal fear of "As AI advances, I'm going to lose my job".
According to a survey conducted by ADP across 18 countries with approximately 35,000 respondents, more than 4 out of 10 employees feel that the advancement of AI poses a threat to their jobs.
This clearly reflects the anxiety and fear that workers have about AI. I’ve also noticed that many people around me feel a deep sense of disillusionment, believing that a time is coming when human labor will become obsolete.
But is this fear really rational?
It took only 1 year and 5 months for GPT to evolve into GPT-4, despite initial skepticism. Given the rapid and unimaginable pace at which technology is advancing, I wouldn’t recommend avoiding or ignoring it out of fear. Doing so could cause you to miss out on many opportunities. In other words, it might not be a smart strategy for the current era.
Hadi Partovi, CEO of the American nonprofit education organization Code.org, put it this way.
“When thinking about job losses due to AI, the real risk isn’t that people will lose their jobs to AI, but that they’ll lose their jobs to someone who knows how to use AI.” - Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org
Therefore, as workers in the AI era, our focus should not be on viewing AI as an equal entity to judge and compete with, but rather on how well we can use AI as a tool. As Hadi Partovi pointed out, the future labor market will be divided between those who can effectively use AI and those who cannot, with the value gap between them widening over time. Workers need to have this clarity in mind.
But how did employers react initially? As you might expect, most of them were quite pleased.
Before the global recession hit in 2023, employers were really struggling. Salaries in the IT industry were inflating, and the competition for talent was fierce worldwide. It was a time when every company was desperately trying to attract any kind of talent they could, making it difficult not only to hire new employees but also to retain them. Globally, companies were expending a lot of energy on recruitment. For a significant period, the power in the labor market was firmly in the hands of the workers.
So, when ChatGPT was introduced to the market in November 2022, and the idea of replacing workers with AI gained traction, employers began to envision a rosy future. It was as if they were thinking along these lines.
‘We don't know when, but it seems that human workers will become less and less necessary. We won't have to work hard to be a popular workplace. The hassle of dealing with labor issues will decrease.’
Nevertheless, contrary to employers' initial expectations, the competition for securing high-quality AI talent is intensifying in an unexpected way.
According to an article on April 27, governments and large corporations around the world, including the U.S., China, Japan, and Europe, are engaged in a fierce battle to secure talent in the field of artificial intelligence.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk described the competition for AI talent as "the most insane war", while Google CEO Sundar Pichai even suggested that downsizing other personnel might be necessary to secure AI talent. The article also mentioned a saying circulating in the AI industry: "The company who secures the talent secures the models, and he who secures the models secures the world".
Meanwhile, according to a March 20 article, LG Group is taking a long-term approach by establishing its own corporate graduate school to offer master's and doctoral degrees, aiming to continuously secure AI talent.
These articles noted that the salary competition has become intensely overheated, particularly among American companies with the highest private investment in the AI industry. Meta, for example, offers up to $2.51 million per person, including base salary, stock options, and bonuses, while OpenAI offers $1.56 million, and Google $1.57 million.
However, offering high salaries alone isn't enough to attract top talent. AI professionals prioritize whether the company has the computing infrastructure that allows them to fully utilize their skills. As a result, IT giants have been investing enormous amounts of capital to build the infrastructure that AI experts desire.
This illustrates just how scarce AI talent is today and the intense battle among major employers to acquire them. It underscores the belief that the future success of businesses hinges on the amount of AI talent they can secure.
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When we talk about "AI talent" in this context, we're not just referring to individuals with technical skills, but those who can demonstrate expertise across the entire process of AI development, implementation, and utilization. This talent can be categorized into three main types:
This definition aligns with the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2020. The McKinsey Global Institute’s The State of AI in 2022 report also underscores the importance of AI talent, highlighting their critical role in the successful adoption of AI within companies and in securing a competitive edge.
The strategies of prominent AI companies, such as NVIDIA, are also worth noting. CEO Jensen Huang has stated:
“My goal is to create an amazing environment for the best people in the world."
This "amazing environment" goes beyond just high salaries or comfortable working conditions. NVIDIA’s search for top-tier talent involves finding individuals who are eager to do something that is immensely hard to do and has the potential to change the world. To attract such talent, NVIDIA opts for projects that are extremely difficult but capable of making a great impact if successful.
In short, the world’s leading talents are motivated by the tasks that have never been done before and incredibly challenging, yet capable of having a profound impact on the world. This reflects NVIDIA’s intense focus on attracting talent with a high density of skills and ambition.
On NVIDIA’s recruitment page, it states, “By joining us, you will tackle some of the world’s hardest problems and discover unprecedented ways to improve the quality of life for everyone.”
This philosophy has fostered a sense of pride among NVIDIA employees, who refer to themselves as ‘Nvidians.’ As a result, NVIDIA’s employee turnover rate is significantly lower than the industry average of 19.2%, standing at just 5.3%.
NVIDIA’s passion for AI talent is well-known. For example, according to a February 2019 article, a South Korean graduate student who posted a paper on AI speech synthesis technology online received a direct hiring proposal from Bryan Catanzaro, NVIDIA’s VP. The hiring decision was made just one month after the paper was published.
In the previous article, we discussed the case of Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company applying large-scale AI technology. Similarly, companies that are not technology-centric will eventually need AI talent to achieve overwhelming market competitiveness. As more companies adopt AI technologies and talent, the overall work culture in the market will also shift.
Ultimately, to work with AI talent, companies will need to make significant changes, as Sanofi did. This involves not just adopting AI technology but also transforming the organization’s decision-making structure, work processes, and overall corporate culture in the long term.
Therefore, for the near future, we must ask ourselves:
“What should companies change and prepare to become the workplace of choice for future AI talent?”
The advancement of AI technology is having a profound impact not just on hiring strategies but also on the way companies innovate and structure their organizations. In the next installment, we will explore the new paradigms of organizational culture brought about by AI, focusing on innovations, trust, and empowerment.
We will examine case studies of AI-driven innovations and investigate how these changes are affecting corporate decision-making processes and organizational structures. Additionally, we will discuss the emergence of new leadership styles and shifts in organizational culture in the age of AI.
Through engaging examples, we aim to elevate your understanding of how AI-driven innovation and organizational transformation can reshape the workplace. Let’s explore the critical questions employers need to ask themselves to navigate the era of AI effectively.
Next Post｜AI-Driven Beer: A Glimpse into Efficient Innovation [AI Ready] #3
Guiding Questions to Move from Insight to Action
Written by : The Asker (Link)
Writer : Dana Jeong | CEO of nutilde
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