Nowadays it feels odd to walk into a supermarket and not see a self checkout option.
Today, more and more petrol stations are making paying at the pump possible.
Just a few years ago digital marketers would have to change bids on hundreds of keywords everyday, now there are a plethora of tools to do that job.
Artificial Intelligence is creeping into jobs everywhere.
Don’t forget outsourcing too!
There are vast amounts of companies in foreign countries that can undercut you for price.
With these advances in technology and task competence I’d like to assert that the only future proof skills/tasks are those that cannot be outsourced or replicated by AI.
Difficult skills like creativity.
You can see it everywhere.
People are more bored than ever and they’re consuming more content than ever.
They’re also not talking about the automated emails they received but the new and interesting things they saw.
Netflix, Amazon and Disney are all racing to get more creative content onto their streaming services to keep up with this demand.
Creative thinking is also the difference between market leading companies and deteriorating businesses.
Henry Ford’s creative thinking led to a car revolution.
Steve Jobs’ ability to think differently led Apple to becoming the biggest company in the world with three giant leaps.
Tesla became the talk of the town by adding remarkable ingenuity into a old saturated market.
Then consider this quote from Geoff Colvin’s ‘Talent is overrated’
“Why didn’t Western Union invent the telephone? Why didn’t US Steel invent the minimill? Why didn’t IBM invent the personal computer? Over and over, the organisations that knew all there was to know about a technology or an industry failed to make the creative breakthrough that would transform the business“
To look at it from a business owner’s point of view – what are the advantages of employing people if the job can be done quicker and cheaper by computers?
AI seems to be only getting better and there may come a time when your job will be in question, I think the most prudent thing to do is to invest time and effort into areas where AI can’t compete.
Thomas Duggan 