(Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Key points to remember
- AI has indeed hit the mainstream, with startups touting its potential to disrupt nearly every industry imaginable.
- There is no doubting the power of machine learning, especially when combined with robotics, and we look at some of the jobs that are more likely than others to be taken over by AI.
- AI investing apps are a particularly exciting use of machine learning, giving regular investors access to sophisticated trading strategies typically reserved for the wealthy.
AI is everywhere right now. It has slowly grown in popularity and prominence, but has recently burst into the mainstream with a number of high-profile (and very cool) screenings and applications.
One of the most discussed has been AI image generation technology such as Dall-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. These programs use text prompts to create incredible images of scenes and characters that are only limited by the imagination.
A guy from Colorado even won a prize for digital art at the State Fair, with an artwork he created using Midjourney. While there was a $300 cash prize offered for the win, the odd art prize here and there probably won’t see the AI have a major impact on the economy.
The thing is, the uses of AI go much, much further than making pretty pictures.
We see the use of artificial intelligence growing all the time, in all different sectors of the economy. This risks ending with the disappearance of many jobs, because we know that they no longer exist. It sounds a bit grim, but the reality is that using AI tools and technology is likely to help humans focus on more rewarding and fulfilling work.
So let’s look at some of the jobs that could be rendered obsolete by artificial intelligence.
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Worker
In fact, this has been happening for quite some time. The use of robotics in manufacturing has a much longer history than you might have guessed. General Motors is credited with being the first major manufacturer to introduce robotics to its assembly line, installing the UNIMATE machine at its New Jersey plant in 1962.
Yes, that’s right, the same year Lawrence of Arabia won the Best Picture Oscar and Elvis Presely was on the pop charts, and there were robots building cars.
Things have obviously evolved since then, with many manufacturers of all types operating factories housing hundreds of robots. Some are now even fully automated.
But there is a big difference between robotics and artificial intelligence. A robot is designed to perform a defined task in a defined way over and over again. This is useful for tightening bolts or moving heavy objects, but not as useful in situations where decision making is required.
This is where the AI comes in.
This is one of the key roles defined by Elon Musk during this year’s Tesla AI with the introduction of Optimus, their humanoid robot. The idea behind this technology is that it will enable a combination of robotics and artificial intelligence, to eliminate the need for humans to perform repetitive or dangerous tasks.
In a factory setting, one of the examples Musk used was grabbing and installing a pipe.
It sounds simple, but since a pipe is flexible and moves, a stationary robot would struggle to perform the task consistently. Using AI, Optimus will be able to predict the movement of the house and adjust his grip in order to catch it, just like a human can.
Over time, we are likely to see fewer and fewer humans working in factories, although it is likely that there will always be a need for some level of human oversight.
Couriers
Amazon is another company keen to push the boundaries of automation. In Jeff Bezos’ endless quest for scale and efficiency, the use of robotics and artificial intelligence is a given.
Parcel delivery is a sector of the economy that has exploded with the continued rise of e-commerce, and it is very well studied for automation.
Routes from one factory to a large number of delivery addresses are easily done by AI. Route-planning software like Google Maps is already everywhere, and even human drivers rely on this technology to deliver our packages and UberEats.
The challenge comes from being able to drive and deliver without human intervention. It’s something that many companies are actively working on, with billions of dollars being awash in the problem.
Tesla has been testing self-driving technology for several years, as have other major companies such as General Motors and Alphabet.
It is expected that eventually a combination of these technologies will mean that delivery drivers and couriers could be out of work.
investment analyst
This one might surprise you, but it’s the one we know best. A huge amount of work and manpower in the financial sector is devoted to collecting, categorizing and analyzing data. Not only is this tedious and time-consuming, but there are limits to the amount of information a human can process and always the possibility of errors.
A single mistyped number on a spreadsheet can throw a detailed analysis out the window.
That’s why at Q.ai, our AI investment app harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to examine more data, faster, and make decisions based on massive amounts of historical data.
As with most jobs on this list, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more real jobs.
AI still needs to define work parameters and strategies to implement. For example, our AI can be set up to predict the best expected weekly performance for stocks in the US market, but we need to know which stocks to include in the universe and what data to base those predictions on.
Some examples could be oil price, interest rates, unemployment rate, overall stock market performance and volatility and more.
Even so, we are likely to see more and more junior investment analyst roles replaced by complex algorithms and sophisticated machine learning programs.
Customer service
By now, we’ve all used chatbots somewhere or other. Most websites have a friendly pop-up in the lower right corner asking if we need help, and in many cases they work just fine.
For simple requests, these bots are already proving to be very effective in resolving customer issues quickly. More complex requests will inevitably end up being redirected to a real person.
Over time, however, we can expect AI and natural language processing to allow more and more of these conversations to happen without the need for human interaction. At the moment, these chatbots are programmed to identify specific keywords and provide a limited range of solutions based on those keywords.
Over time, AI will enable this technology to interpret what we say and provide real, natural responses to those queries. I’m sure many customer service employees would be happy to have a machine handle customer complaints on their behalf!
security guards
Security will always be important, and many homes and businesses will continue to want protection to keep them safe. However, we are likely to see more roles of traditional security personnel replaced by AI.
Technologies such as facial recognition and human shape recognition allow AI to track potential threats and even predict their movements.
This information can then be used to trigger automated protective devices such as shutters or bollards, and alert human guards or the police.
We are already seeing this type of technology widely used by law enforcement, especially in large, densely populated cities.
With no need to pay overtime or find sick-call coverage, more and more businesses and families are likely to opt for technology-based solutions to their protection needs.
Explore investing in AI
As you’d expect, we’re all about AI at Q.ai. While some worry about what the future of AI might hold, we believe it has the power to give humans access to technology and opportunities they never had before.
In our field of investing, this means giving everyday people access to sophisticated trading strategies that are typically reserved for high-flying hedge fund clients.
Strategies such as complex pair trades that span one asset while simultaneously selling another, such as in our US outperformance kit. Or our Global Trends Kit which uses AI to predict whether oil, stocks, gold, US stocks or international stocks are likely to perform better over the coming week, then automatically rebalances accordingly .
The possibilities are nearly endless, and they open up exciting opportunities for investors.
Download Q.ai today to access AI-powered investment strategies.
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