Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AI and Data at AWS, sees AI as a tool to automate repetitive tasks, increasing creativity and productivity. Rather than replacing jobs, AI frees up time for more meaningful work, requiring reskilling efforts to adapt. It will work alongside humans across industries to create efficiency and address global challenges.
Swami Sivasubramanian, the Vice President of AI and Data at Amazon Web Services (AWS), shares future of artificial intelligence (AI). He believes that AI, particularly generative AI, isn’t here to take away jobs but to remove the boring tasks that take up most of our time. This change will increase productivity, creativity, and job satisfaction for workers worldwide
AI will take away tasks, not jobs
Sivasubramanian says that AI’s main job is not to replace jobs but to take over repetitive tasks that take up most of workers’ time, like data entry and scheduling. These tasks often fill up an employee’s day, leaving little time for more creative and important work.
He believes AI can handle these boring tasks, giving people more time to focus on work that drives innovation and is more rewarding.
“What if we could flip that ratio?” Sivasubramanian asks. He believes that by leveraging AI, employees can reclaim the time spent on uninteresting tasks and use it to solve problems, create, and innovate.
Of course, the transition brings more challenges. Sivasubramanian acknowledges that there will be short-term job displacement as businesses and companies adopt AI to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
For example, faster contact center resolution times will reduce the need for as many workers as possible. However, he believes that this will be a self-correcting process over time.
He suggests that one of the keys to addressing this issue is reskilling and upskilling the workforce. Community colleges and technology companies should play an important role in offering training programs to ensure that AI is accessible to as many people as possible.
With the right training, people can learn new skills, enabling them to take on more complex and higher-value tasks. AI could reduce the time needed to learn new skills, making it possible for almost anyone to become an app creator or do tasks that used to need years of experience.
While AI will handle more routine tasks, Sivasubramanian stresses that humans should still make decisions. Though AI can provide data-driven predictions and insights, it lacks the ability to understand trade-offs, nuances, and strategic decision-making that humans bring to the table.
Humans can work with AI
According to him, humans working with AI could be a better option for future growth. As in customer care, it provides personalized responses, but humans are still needed for complex issues. In manufacturing, AI creates digital models to test designs quickly and cost-effectively. It also helps marketers understand consumer behavior to clear campaigns, while in drug discovery, it speeds up the development of treatments and vaccines.
In media, AI automates repetitive tasks, freeing up designers for creative work. Lastly, in financial services, AI enhances fraud detection and with more accurate data.
As generative AI continues to grow, Sivasubramanian believes it’s the perfect time to transform businesses and the way we work. By taking away repetitive tasks, AI can give workers more time for creative and meaningful work. It can help people rediscover their passion.
In the end, Sivasubramanian views AI as a tool for progress. It can increase productivity and improve results, letting employees focus on more important tasks. With the right use of AI, we are about to enter a new era where technology and human creativity work together to meet major global challenges.
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