AI: Our Helpful Partner Not Our Replacement
As we enter an age driven by the power of technology, one main technology stands out at the forefront of all of the technological advancements we are undergoing: artificial intelligence (AI).
With the rising power and rapidly improving capabilities of AI systems, especially in imitating certain human behaviors, people started questioning whether it would be our replacement, but didn’t people think that as well when the calculator was invented? Were mathematicians replaced by calculators or did calculators improve how mathematicians do their research?
AI will impact our lives in ways we might not even imagine, but let’s talk about how AI currently could improve our efficiency and productivity, revolutionize healthcare and wellness, and contribute to making the world a safer place.
How can AI improve efficiency and productivity?
Let’s go back to the calculator and mathematicians analogy. The invention of the calculator enabled mathematicians to perform complex calculations that might’ve taken hours just in seconds. Similarly, AI’s contribution to efficiency and productivity boils down to two main things: saving time and reducing error.
1. Writing and Editing:
Writing takes many forms and shapes; it could be writing an email to your co-worker, formatting and improving your resume, or writing a personal statement for a university application. AI shouldn’t replace the human aspect of writing; however, it could help us brainstorm and come up with new ideas or it could help us edit and review our writing to ensure we don’t have any grammatical mistakes. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grammarly, Quilbot AI, and others provide great tools for users to accomplish different writing tasks. By collaborating with such tools, we could become more efficient -brainstorming could be faster, for example- and reduce errors in our writing.
2. Data Analysis:
Whether you’re a business owner, an employee, or a student, you’ve likely encountered large volumes of data. Analyzing this data can be time-consuming, but this is where AI excels. AI can analyze data and provide insights much faster than humans. For decision-making, whether in business or personal contexts, tools like Tableau and IBM Watson Analytics use AI to help people and businesses make more informed decisions quickly.
3. Customer Service:
It is very likely you either saw or used the chat function available on many company websites, and it is probably powered by AI providing you with the information you need quickly -usually, transfers you to a human representative if your questions are too complex. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, such as Zendesk and LivePerson, provide quick and accurate responses to customer inquiries. This not only improves customer satisfaction but also frees up human employees to focus on more complex tasks that will further the business, enhancing overall efficiency.
How AI is Revolutionizing Healthcare and Wellness?
Healthcare and wellness is one of the most essential aspects of human beings. Inventions and advances in technologies have improved how we treat patients and detect diseases in various ways.
1. Diagnosing Diseases:
Diagnosing diseases is the most essential step in treating them, and the earlier the better. Thus, with AI’s pattern recognition and image classification capabilities, the process has been more accurate and faster than before achieving results that are on par or even better than humans in some cases. For example, Google’s DeepMind developed an AI system that could detect acute kidney injury (AKI), a condition that is associated with over 100,000 people in the UK every year 48 hours early giving doctors a head start in treating such a fast-deteriorating disease. Additionally, AI aids in the interpretation of complex medical data, providing insights that can lead to more accurate diagnoses.
2. Personalized Treatment:
AI helps implement the concept of precise medication as it provides a recommendation of specific treatments based on the patient’s genetic profile and other factors. IBM Watson Health, for example, assists the oncologist – specifically, IBM Watson for Oncology– in developing the course of action to take regarding a specific patient through the nutritionary and clinical databases of medical literature and many patient records. It has the advantage of optimising the efficiency of treatments and reducing the impact of side effects hence improving the health of the patients.
3. Remote Monitoring and Telehealth:
Smart technologies include monitoring devices and applications that constantly measure and transmit patients’ conditions to doctors. Numerous firms such as HealthTap and Babylon Health [eMed] amongst others give telehealth using advanced intelligence. It is especially useful in the case of chronic conditions, to maintain the patients’ conditions monitored and treated so that they do not require so many hospital readmissions. Telemedicine coupled with the use of AI offers people remote consulting services and helps to increase the availability and accessibility of healthcare services either in terms of cost or location.
How is AI making the world safer?
When people want to choose a place to live in, safety is one of the main contributing factors that are considered when making the decision. In our digital age, we live in two worlds: the physical and digital worlds, and AI is enabling us to improve our safety in both.
1. Surveillance and Threat Detection:
AI-embedded mass scene monitoring systems like those offered by Hikvision Company can cover extensive regions process videos in real-time and compute video feeds for abnormities and threats than a human operator. That way it increases efficiency in the fight against crime and results in increased safety for the public.
2. Cybersecurity:
AI cybersecurity tools can detect and mitigate threats much more efficiently than the conventional ways. For instance, Darktrace leverages AI to prevent and react to cyber threats in the same manner that humans would in real-time by figuring out the conventional ‘pattern of life’ of a network and then evaluating for anything abnormal that would be characteristic of threats. Enabling the learning process to be introduced into the AI systems facilitates optimum protection against cyber threats and shields data and structures’ credibility.
3. Disaster Response:
Specifically in natural disasters, AI is capable of receiving data from different sources to estimate the effects and thus help in the determination of efficient evacuation and response strategies to be applied. Also, autonomous, AI-powered drones and robots for search and rescue operations can be useful in dangerous situations. For example, drones with AI are utilized for searching for the victims in the aftermath of earthquakes with equal protection for both victims and rescue workers.
AI will take over many jobs but will create millions more
It is apparent that some of the manufacturing jobs, especially the simple repetitive tasks or what is referred to as routine jobs will be taken over by AI but at the same time, it will also come up with millions more. Concern has been raised that AI will displace certain jobs especially those that require repetitive work; however, it is good to note that new opportunities come with its application.
To speak about statistics, the World Economic Forum predicts that AI will take over 85 million jobs by 2025; however, they also predict that 97 million new jobs will be created giving a net positive towards jobs created by AI. Definitely, it is a challenge since many of such jobs will require reskilling and upskilling current workers; however, we’ve seen this trend before with many technologies and inventions.
1. Job Automation
AI will take over the dull repetitive responsibilities and bore works like data feeding, fixing appointments, and simple customer relation services where people will remain occupied with creative or higher strategic jobs. For instance, software like UiPathcan be useful for undertaking data entry tasks in finance and human resource offices. This shift is beneficial because workers can increase their rate of performance and experience better satisfaction originating from the performance of their duties while undertaking significant tasks.
2. New Job Creation
Thus, the application of AI will also generate new workplaces and stimulate the emergence of new professions. The fields that are related to the development of AI, data analysis, and ethical concerns are among the new professions. Moreover, AI shall improve invention in various fields; this shall bring about new models and vocations which are yet to be foreseen. For example, the introduction of AI in medicine creates professions in AI-based diagnostics and customized medication.
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that improves company performance and productivity, changes the healthcare industry, increases security, and changes the structure of employment.
Thus, AI should not be considered as the competitor that is going to replace people, as it is rather the tool that helps people develop, just like the calculator. Looking at how we incorporate AI in various aspects of our daily lives, the future proves bright for a society with technology and mankind aimed at making the world a better place.
This article was written by AGT TEAM
Some of the sources used in this article:
https://niftypm.com/blog/how-ai-can-help-to-increase-productivity/
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-generative-ai-can-boost-highly-skilled-workers-productivity
https://hbr.org/2023/06/boost-your-productivity-with-generative-ai
https://www.switchboard.app/learn/article/ai-for-productivity
https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/10/recession-and-automation-changes-our-future-of-work-but-there-are-jobs-coming-report-says-52c5162fce
https://www.ibm.com/industries/healthcare
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/watson-oncology?region=CAN
https://aiforgood.itu.int/autonomous-robots-for-disaster-management/
