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Will A.I. really replace your job? CEOs don\u2019t seem to think so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk to a lot of CEOs, and I\u2019ve learned very quickly that they are not thinking of AI replacing us\u2014I can say that with full authority,\u201d said Ronnie Sheth, CEO of SENEN GROUP, an Austin, Texas-based strategic advisory firm whose bread and butter is helping companies unlock and integrate AI into their workflows. Sheth spoke with Fortune <\/em>about the perils and potential of AI implementation during an interview at London Tech Week earlier this month.<\/p>\n The fear and speculation of AI snapping up jobs has crept into every industry. Amazon<\/a> has recently laid off over a hundred customer service workers, Fortune\u2019s <\/em>Jason Del Rey reported<\/a>, part of its continual effort to trim costs and invest in automation. New reports<\/a> from the New York Times<\/em> and from Citigroup<\/a> both caution entry-level bankers<\/a> and financiers about their risk of replacement, and just last month, Sinovation Ventures CEO Kai-Fu Lee said he anticipates AI will replace 50% of human jobs<\/a> in the next decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n But individual CEOs might remain wary, Sheth said. She name-checked a large construction firm that\u2019s a SENEN client. \u201cI just talked to their CEO who\u2019s\u2014obviously, as a construction leader\u2014thinking about robots, and AI algorithms that could be used to do some of the menial tasks on the ground.\u201d The boss wasn\u2019t sold, she said. \u201cA lot of workers were asking him whether AI would affect their jobs. He told them, \u2018No, but it is going to increase your safety.\u2019 That\u2019s how CEOs are thinking about this differently. And that\u2019s the right way to think about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s cold comfort to the CEOs who are getting nervous about their own utility, and whether they themselves might one day be replaced. Sheth\u2019s not worried there, either\u2014at least not for the effective leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cAs CEO, my job is to do a few things,\u201d Sheth said. \u201cManage culture. Lead the company in a direction where it doesn\u2019t go bankrupt. To drive sustainable growth. To really improve the community that I\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheth said many CEOs are more concerned with human aspects of business, such as branding and connecting with customers, than they are with cold numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her clients\u2014which span Fortune 500 companies like Nike<\/a> and IBM<\/a> to start-ups and NGOs\u2014have been willing to let go of their short-term revenue and growth goals in order to invest in sustainable, viable brand expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to name names, but there are some very, very big retail brands that we worked with, who have gotten into some interesting times, because they decided to just swing big on AI and forget about their brand,\u201d Sheth said. \u201cNot a smart idea. They\u2019re having to backpedal into branding.\u201d<\/p>\n In the short-term, no jobs will be \u201ctruly, successfully replaced,\u201d Sheth predicted. \u201cBut if we think 10, 15, 20 years down the road\u2014maybe assembly line jobs? Maybe a little bit of bookkeeping, maybe just a little bit of base marketing activities, data entry administrative work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure, she said, those can be replaced or outsourced, but that doesn\u2019t mean the people who have been doing those jobs are going to be left without other options. \u201cI think there\u2019s a balance between rescaling the labor force and also setting policies in place to ensure that AI is being used for human good, and not taking away people\u2019s livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the responsibility of business leaders\u2014and even public sector government officials, Sheth said\u2014to consider how to mitigate AI\u2019s impact on working professionals. Going a step further: \u201cI don\u2019t believe that a company that says they want to be AI-centric or data-driven is on the right path,\u201d Sheth said. \u201cYou are not value-driven, and you are not value-centric. You are what you focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n Drawing on the years of projects Sheth\u2019s company has done with major firms, she said she\u2019s noticed that \u201cthe companies that come to me and say, we want to do more with data. We want to be data-driven, we want to be data-centric\u2014they are the companies that are set up for failure.\u201d<\/p>\n That failure stems from one-track-mindedness\u2014focusing on numbers rather than people. \u201cOn the flip side, the companies that say, \u2018we\u2019ve got all this data, now how do we unlock value for the business, for our customers, for our employees, for our community?\u2019 It\u2019s a different frame of mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The difference between the two, she said, is chasing the answer to becoming data-centric, versus unlocking value for individuals. \u201cAs business leaders, we really need to start focusing on ensuring that policy and regulation are very, very, very clear on human centricity and we need to ensure that AI does not stunt human innovation,\u201d Sheth said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re seeing a lot of fear-based regulation, fear-based policymaking. I really want innovation to come through, without compromising on human value.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nReplacement theory<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The perils of data over people<\/strong><\/h2>\n