Big changes are coming to the American job markets, with some of those changes already arriving, so now's the time to understand why and how they're happening so we aren't caught by surprise, experts are saying.
Yes, it's a case of artificial intelligence impacting the workforce, but so far it's all about increasing worker productivity, which has been at a relatively low point over the past 20 years, according to Efficacy Group President and business strategist Duane Deason.
Productivity appears to have started increasing because of greater use of AI, "but that does create a big problem for employees, who are used to having a circumstance where as long as they were doing good work they can stay employed, and now AI is replacing what some of those employees were doing, so they can still be good employees and still be losing their jobs."
Such a paradigm change will not easily be accepted by many because it's long been considered a basic American labor rule: Do your job well and in return you have job security except in unusual circumstances (such as recessions) -- and if that rule is only true some of the time in an AI-directed economy, it's going to take a lot of getting used to by a lot of people.
Mr. Deason says it looks like this transition toward AI is liable to get worse before it gets better.
"Right now AI has focused on a couple of key tasks and job roles, things like software development, where people are being hit very hard by things, things like call centers and there are a few others that have been hit.
"But eventually it's going to hit everyone. Whether you're an accountant, an attorney, no matter where you are you're going to be impacted by AI and people will be able to do more with less," Deason says.
So what's the good news here? "There are a number of people in the know who believe there's going to be a boom in creativity and of new companies starting because the barrier to starting new companies is going to be so much lower.
"AI will allow groups of just three or four people in a company to do creative businesses that can get started easier because of reduced investment costs and reduced time required to get started -- because of the use of AI in the startup process.
"Startups in the AI future are going to need the least amount of capital than it's ever taken to do something like that."