Kai-Fu Lee, a man who knows a smidge about artificial intelligence, is of the opinion that AI will have a greater effect on white collar jobs than on blue collar ones. Whilst I am unfamiliar with any statistics on which to base the numerical veracity of his claim, I am somewhat inclined to agree.
He spoke late last year at a conference on AI and made these judgements, covered in an MIT Tech Review article by Will Knight. Mr Lee of of the view the AI revolution will happen in four non-consecutive waves:
- The availability of lots of labeled data has given the big Internet companies an AI advantage
- The availability of company data which has yet to be exploited will create a big opportunity to replace knowledge workers such as lawyers and tax advisers
- Data being generated through new products or apps, or by paying for it to be created.
- The final wave, some distance ahead, will be about fully automated services such as self-driving cars
Here’s my view: Wave 1 will see marketing functions benefiting the most, with the ability to pin-point how they target users in an manner that has eluded marketeers forever, Wave 2 will see procurement and finance seeking ways to take costs out through automation of work that is currently being performed by humans, including knowledge work, wave three is all about IOT, and wave 4 will be built upon the education provided by AI and data being leveraged in the previous waves (which I would summarise as Social Media data, Company data, Smart object data).
As Mr Lee says: “AI applied to different domains—and turned into products—will generate phenomenal value. As a venture capitalist or a large company hoping to harness these technologies, this is the open age of AI.”
Those organisations who can clinically see and exploit the opportunity will be like the railway or oil barons of the 19th century.