Will your job exist in the next 10/20 years?

[LittleRedintheHood]

I work in allied medical sector, so my job will exist but with the caveat that AI can increasingly do a lot of diagnosis via scans and decision making from this.

AIBU to ask if you think your job/sector of work will survive in a similar role to now?

Would you recommend a young person to start a career in your sector?

In my job I would say you need to up-skill clinically in extra qualifications and embrace the technology before others to stay ahead of the inevitable changes already coming with AI in the medical field.

I agree. I've been an accountant for 40 years. I remember the doom-mongers saying our jobs will disappear way back then when we started seeing PCs appear on desks and then again when book-keeping software appeared. Then they said it again when bank feeds came into play (direct posting of bank transactions into software). Guess what? I'm still as busy as ever!

IT is a tool, not a replacement. I've no doubt at all that AI will develop, just like software and internet has over the past 40 years. But so much still needs "human" intervention, "human" creativity, etc. Yes, we can train computers to do more and more, and yes, we can train them to start thinking for themselves, but there'll still be a need for humans.

As for manual work, like construction, caring, etc., we've had "robots" for 40 years in, say, car manufacture, but we still need "humans" to attend breakdowns, service cars, change tyres, etc. Yes, computers are used for diagnostics, but you still need people to do the drudgery work. Not sure how a robot is going to re-wire a house, or install a new boiler. Nor how a robot is going to wipe your arse in a hospital or care home. Again, robotics etc are a useful "tool" but not a substitute for everything.

Certainly AI has many uses, eg in training surgeons, training airline pilots, etc., as it can simulate different scenarios and "train" specialists how to deal with them, etc., like flight simulators and simulated humans for trainee surgeons to perform operations on a dummy rather than a human, etc. We know that aircraft can fly themselves, trains can drive themselves, even cars, etc., but we still don't trust them and still need humans to watch over them and take control when necessary!

In fact, if you look at programmes like Tomorrow's World from the 70s, an awful lot of what was projected simply hasn't happened. There were prototype "human style" robots even back then, i.e. that looked like humans, i.e. 2 arms, 2 legs, a "head" with cameras/lights etc., but 40 years later, we've still not got production lines of human-style robots doing "human" like things.

I've no doubt that AI will revolutionise some jobs/industries, but I think that lots of new jobs/industries will come out of it, all needing humans.

I don’t think my job could be replaced as it’s quite artistic. But who knows.

What is your job OP? Are you a radiologist?

Re @nachosandnachis - 'Writing code' is really the easiest part of the job and I'm quite happy for AI to go ahead and do that!

Yes, you need to know what to write about. The large software company I work for does employ CS grads but most of the developers and a lot of other employees are scientists, mathematicians or engineers.

The job I do now didn't exist when I was at school. And th

I'll be retired by then but my area of work (governance) has existed for hundreds of years in various forms and although of course it has evolved, I don't think that I could be replaced by AI. Maybe some aspects but not the expertise required to advise and make decisions.

Heard a quote the other day… AI will not replace people… people who can use AI will replace people who cannot.

Oops poster too soon.

The job I do now didn't exist when I was at school. Jobs do disappear. And new job types do get created.

Think of the fax machine, the camera... all things we never thought we'd see the back of... but now we have better ways to communicate and capture pictures. It's the same in the world of jobs. It's ever changing.

I’m a teacher-I think it’s unlikely to be replaced. Whilst you can still have one of us in front of 30 small people-planning, teaching, wiping noses, changing nappies , marking, assessing, ringing parents, doing displays, photocopying, playground duty, making observations etc etc so that 30 parents can work (well, that’s what many MPs seem to feel), it will be a job. I think you can cut other things (eg there were no TAs in my school when I qualified, that’s possible), but ultimately, I can’t see needing a teacher changing anytime soon.

Woukd I recommend it as a job? No, not any more. I don’t know anyone who wants to train as a teacher either-they want flexible jobs without micromanagement and being blamed for all of society’s problems.

Very possibly, I'm an analyst. However, as others have said, I think it'll be more a case of AI will make aspects of my job easier/more time efficient, rather than wipe me out completely.

Silly question, but what exactly do you mean by 'an analyst' - what are you analysing for what purpose?
It's one of those terms which could mean a lot of different things.

@ErrolTheDragon Health analyst. Epidemiological data

Work in nursing I don’t think that will ever be replaced by bots as we do far too much negotiating with patients, give and take, empathy, changing situations very quickly etc.

as for the comment about carers not being replaced by bots I wouldn’t be too sure, the way things are going with the every growing elderly population, lack of care homes and care at home services something will have to give. I think bots is a viable solution in so far as they could get people up and dressed, fed, meds, toilet and those who are carers could then provide the human contact side and spend their visits having a chat with people. Otherwise I’m not sure how we are going to manage the elderly population

I have no idea if my job will still exist but you also have to consider that jobs will exist in 10/20 years time that don't exist now, so it's all a balancing act x

I’m a librarian in a major uni research library. In the years I’ve worked in academic libraries the death of the book has been a hot topic. In the 1990s and early 2000s it was expected that book usage and publishing of new books would decline much faster than it actually has. We still have to buy quite a lot of print material. Roles of acquisitions librarians have changed as the form of study and research materials has changed. Open access and ejournals have changed academic publishing and library jobs. I’ve worked in those areas but currently I’m sourcing rare and difficult modern materials for library users. In the institution I work in there was probably only ever one or two acquisitions specialists working with staff and student recommendations and university departmental research needs. Tech helps me source stuff, streamlines the financial side of things. Much of the fulfilment side of things remains print only availability for the material I source. I’m aiming to retire sometime in the next decade. Looking at academic library management structures, I think we are about to go into one of our reshuffles locally. Technology changes are only one of the drivers and remote working,wfh, hybrid - for both staff and patrons - are as much drivers of this as changes to the nature of material and access to it.

Thanks for the clarification, @MalcolmTuckersSwearBox . Epidemiological data, and other health data will surely be an area where AI and large data will mean analysts can do a lot more. The human intelligence will still be needed to ask questions, make sense of patterns the AIs expose, and then move those findings into further scientific research ('that's interesting ... so now we need to get data on this other thing and analyse that's... or 'that's interesting, we need a drug to target xxxx ' etc etc - new science, device development etc etc....), and humans are definitely needed to move findings into developing health policies and implementing them.

Foster carer. I hope it's obsolete. Would be lovely if there was no need for us any more

Definitely. I see someone posted about human + AI and that is spot on. I’m a software developer. Seniors oversees projects and design and make strategic decisions. But we have more junior members doing a lot of the coding and testing work. With AI you will need a lot less people doing the actual coding. It’s like offices used to have a typing pool and phone exchanges have operators. They are now extinct and the more senior people are doing their typing and routing their own phone calls.

I can see more senior software developers will be designing and implementing and testing themselves with the aid of AI.

As for teaching. I am already seeing projects at university level hiring less lecturers and replacing some of the work with AI. It’s incredibly good at creating new assignments. It’s all about cost cutting really.

Dunno really. My job could be done by AI (customer service, call centre style) but I don't think people would like it. "I want to talk to a human" you hear that all the time.

I'm a lymphoedema therapist, and will shortly qualify as an Osteopath.
I doubt either of my roles will be replaced by AI.

AI can’t do the research work that’s part of the job of any university teacher/academic. So hopefully that will save some jobs

I'm a teacher and I don't think teaching as we know it will be around much longer. There is a recruitment crisis and no teachers. We cannot take supply as the ones they send us have raging mental health issues and we can't put them in front of classes and use our students as guinea pigs to their behaviour . I teach a core subject and the local universities have NO student teachers for this subject this year. AI is already running tuition programmes. We are currently short of 2 teachers and have class sizes of 36 for KS3. Something needs to change.

@catscalledbeanz I do not disagree but many libraries have shut and many are now open and staffed with a lot of volunteers. When I was very young way back in 1990 the public library I started my career in had 3 chartered librarians, 2 para professional librarians and around 6 assistants. That library, my friend close to retirement still works there worked there. It now has 1 chartered librarian, 1 para professional librarian and a couple of paid assistants, the rest are volunteers. I then moved to academic libraries and the engineering library I used to run has shut. so when it comes to a career choice well many places do not want or think they need qualified librarians.

Just because something is better it doesn’t mean it will thrive or survive.

My job is already becoming obsolete with AI. I don't know what the future will hold. Respectfully though, the benefits to medicine and health are the thing I'm most excited about when it comes to AI

until AI can squeeze an anal gland and calve a cow, we’ll still need vets….

(unless everyone goes vegan and buys robot pets instead of living ones)