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Business leaders cannot “bully” employees over the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce and how the technology will impact work more broadly, a tech billionaire says.
World Wide Technology (WWT) CEO Jim Kavanaugh told CNBC that people are “too smart” to accept that artificial intelligence won’t change the way they manage their jobs, and that artificial intelligence won’t change how transformative it is. And eliminate any work.
WWT is an enterprise technology solutions provider focusing on cloud computing, IT security, data analysis, artificial intelligence and consulting services.
“If you think you’re going to try to game this and you’re going to tell employees that nothing is going to change and everything is going to be fine, that’s just bullshit,” Kavanaugh said in an interview last week.
Kavanaugh noted that while there is no playbook for how business leaders should communicate about disruptive macroeconomic events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on employment, the CEO’s job is to “be as transparent as possible and always be honest.” treat their situation”. Employees know where they stand. “
Kavanaugh added that artificial intelligence “will bring about all kinds of changes.” “If I could offer any advice, it would be that everyone should become a student of artificial intelligence and technology and not be afraid of it.”
While artificial intelligence will certainly impact the workforce, “none of us have it all figured out,” he said. “If someone comes in and tells you, ‘I can tell you exactly how this is going to impact jobs and how it’s going to impact everything we’re doing,’ they’re lying. Because no one knows.”
Kavanaugh emphasized that overall, he is optimistic about the positive impact of artificial intelligence and its ability to increase productivity.
“To sit there and say, ‘I’m going to try to throw cold water on this fire, I’m going to try to put it out and ignore it,’ is just a mistake.”
“I believe in embracing (artificial intelligence) and learning and being realistic about it. Because some jobs are going to be disrupted, there’s no doubt about it. But, for the most part, I really believe it’s going to be an enhancement accelerators and accelerators for what we’re doing,” Kavanaugh told CNBC.
Cavanaugh co-founded WWT in 1990 as a technology equipment distributor with St. Louis, Missouri, entrepreneur David Steward. Today, WWT itself is a technology giant with annual revenue of $20 billion.
Kavanaugh’s current net worth is $7 billion Real-time data from business news magazine Forbes. Prior to co-founding the company, Cavanaugh competed on the U.S. National Soccer Team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Is artificial intelligence a job destroyer or a job creator?
The paper further states that in the United States and Europe, “approximately two-thirds of current jobs are affected by some degree of AI automation” and that generative AI “could replace as many as a quarter of current jobs.”
Kavanaugh is not the only one who sees positive impacts from the use of artificial intelligence in the world of work. Clara Shih, head of artificial intelligence at Salesforce, told CNBC that some jobs will disappear due to the disruptive impact of the technology.
Whether new technologies will replace jobs is “a question that’s been asked all the time,” Shi said, citing the creation of automated tools in factories, farm vehicles and machinery, and the Internet as examples.
“Some jobs are going to disappear,” Shi said. “The Internet destroyed a lot of jobs. But then it created entirely new jobs that we couldn’t have imagined in 1999.”
Ultimately, Shi said, artificial intelligence will become a positive force in the world of work, bringing new job opportunities. However, our job descriptions may change.
“I think what we’re seeing today with artificial intelligence is that everyone needs new job descriptions,” Shi said. “Most jobs won’t disappear, but every job will require new job descriptions.”
Last week, Salesforce launched a new artificial intelligence platform called AgentForce as part of its annual Dreamforce event. Companies can use the platform to build and customize their own artificial intelligence “agents,” autonomous digital workers that can provide assistance such as customer service and employee support.
Some companies have even been actively promoting the benefits of AI in reducing overall staffing requirements. For example, Swedish fintech Klarna said last month it could Using artificial intelligence to reduce headcount from 5,000 to 3,800 in one yearand then pay more wages to the remaining workers.
The buy now, pay later pioneer told the BBC it hopes to further reduce its headcount to 2,000 next year by using artificial intelligence in areas such as marketing and customer service.
