e. The campaign was entitled ‘Snaplications’.
KPMG has also been reported as incorporating a ‘robot recruiter’ into their hiring process. Applicants interact with ‘a completely automated system’ during initial screenings, where they are tested with ‘anything from computer shooter-style games to balloons that pop up with math questions on screen’ (ABC News).
While it is unclear whether such recruitment practices have had a positive or negative impact on those trying to enter the workforce, some issues have been noted. In particular, pre-interview videos may make applicants vulnerable to discrimination based on appearance, or leave less technologically-able people at a disadvantage.
What jobs are more susceptible to AI takeover?
Many of the more manual jobs where work is repetitive and can be undertaken without special training or degree-level qualifications may be at risk. This is particularly true of work that does not utilise innate human qualities such as creativity, emotional intelligence, or empathy. As Evlin and O’Neill noted: ‘about one third of the workforce, including construction workers and machine operators, spend an average of 70 per cent of their time on automatable tasks. They may need to find new jobs.’
Indeed, by 2030 it is estimated that ‘machines will take over two hours a week of the most repetitive manual tasks’ (ABC News), impacting almost every job. Jan Owen, chief executive of the Foundation for Young Australians, has warned that ’44 per cent of jobs… will be automated in the next 10 years’.
The legal industry is one field that has already begun to feel the impact of automation and AI, with new companies and websites offering consumers a more affordable way to access legal services. The Plexus platform, which helps companies with contract work, is one such example. ‘The huge amount of work that is done in law firms is frankly not interesting and lawyers are very talented and intelligent people,’ the CEO of Plexus has noted, highlighting the benefits of new technology replacing the more menial legal tasks often required in a legal career.
ABC News featured another ‘law robot’ recently, when they pitted a law student against a robot and tasking them with solving a legal problem in the shortest amount of time.
That being said, some businesses have already started incorporating AI into their workplace, and it has actually increased its number of human employees (yes, the ‘human’ needs to be specified). This happened for Smart Steel Solutions, where jobs were able to be brought back ‘onshore’ (after being sent overseas to save costs). Plus, robotics has ‘more than halved the time it takes to produce a tonne of fabricated steel and the number of employees has risen from three to nine’.
(Interested in learning about whether your job is susceptible to an AI takeover? Check out the ABC’s database.)
Which members of society are most at risk of job automation?
Students who are currently studying are already expected to have a number of jobs (and even careers) throughout their lives, and are likely to be vastly impacted by AI and automation, with our current education system not keeping up with the rate of technological advancement. Jan Owen from the Foundation for Young Australians has stated that ‘Nearly 60 per cent [of students] at university and nearly 70 per cent at TAFE were studying jobs that will be automated’.
Jobs and industries that are largely male-dominated are also more susceptible to automation: ‘There are about 2 million Australian men working in jobs where more than half of the job is at risk of automation. That compares with about 750,000 women in such roles’. These include careers that are low paying, and dominated by manual labour or machine operation.
Roles that require characteristics including creativity, caregiving, or communication are less likely to be automated, and are more commonly required in female-dominated positions. As Hugh Durrant-Whyte from the Centre for Translational Data Science at the University of Sydney has noted: ‘Women are strongly represented in roles that involve s