Designer Ralph Lauren (then Ralph Lifshitz) started as a tailor before launching one of the most celebrated brands ever. Doug McMillon was a trainee in at Walmart before he rose to group CEO. From our very own Goan diaspora, Victor Menezes started at Citicorp as a management graduate, before his stellar rise to Senior Vice Chairman. Francisco D’Souza was an associate, then grew to CEO at Cognizant. What did these titans have a shot at, that many youngsters now may not?
As AI lends an efficient alternative to hiring newcomers at entry level positions, where does it leave the ilk of fresh graduates? The traditional value proposition was based on the arrangement that companies train for starter roles like customer service, data compilation, coding; and newcomers gain while hoping to get noticed for a role. It also provided occasion to associate with a mentor who provided invaluable guidance.
Now we are witnessing hordes of freshmen benched, as algorithms take over. The paradox is that while all companies value the experience their workforce brings, few are now willing to offer it as to launch careers. This missing first rung on the career ladder makes the battle for jobs fiercer, as young candidates compete not just amongst themselves; but also compete with machine intelligence. NASSCOM reported that fresher hiring in the Indian IT sector tumbled by 80% since FY22 with a 25% contraction in roles as AI performs application development. While liberating the IT industry from the utilisation quandary, it saddles a new generation with student debt and rising unemployment.
Closer to our Goan coast, implications are bound to ripple to industries like hospitality and manufacturing. Hospitality and allied travel services are implementing front desk automation, CRM chatbots, and guest services platforms. Travellers are turning to AI for personalized travel itineraries, multilingual sightseeing apps, digital travelogues, etcetera. Manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage processing have now accelerated process optimization as smart systems integrate the supply chain at one end and robotic production lines on the other.
Machine learning has reshaped economic contours with many struggling to adapt. While some countries harvest a greater proportion of the AI dividend, others will drop down owing to a skills and infrastructure deficit, data exclusion, job displacement and lack of governance policy.
It is what the UNDP calls ‘the Next Great Divergence’, an impending period of accelerating inequality due to disparate AI competence. However, this divergence is not predetermined and investments in the near future can tip the balance in our favour. The digital divide can be bridged with a unified response from the ecosystem- industry, policymakers and most importantly, educational institutions and students themselves.
Industry wide: Entry-level roles can be reforged with AI usage. Industry forums can create region or sector specific skill-based talent pools to collaborate cost effectively.
Policymakers: Goa government has formulated a draft Al policy to emphasise AI skilling, governance and innovation. More governments need to implement AI frameworks for public offerings and vocational certifications for emerging skills. Businesses could be motivated with tax breaks to restructure hybrid entry-level roles.
Companies: Apprenticeships can be reformulated to explore how AI usage can optimize brand presence and customer outreach. Business leaders will have to rejig workflows and introduce new tools for humans and AI collaboration. HR will need to remap skillsets to redefine the leadership qualities and human competencies that will drive the company’s future. It will need to broaden the hiring focus from experience tenure to other factors that indicate workplace readiness- learning agility, problem solving, digital fluency.
Educational Institutions: J Krishnamurti believed that “the highest function of education is to bring about an integrated individual, capable of dealing with life as a whole. The educator who sees the causes of universal chaos should ask how to awaken intelligence in the student, thus helping the coming generation”.
This brings us to the question on how we can galvanise our educational system in the face of the overhanging crisis in which singularity looms- where AI supersedes human intelligence; to reconfigure our future. This is fundamentally divergent from any other paradigm that we have experienced before, like the industrial revolution or the digital revolution. Singularity is challenging the very basis of human agency and accountability. Given its far-reaching impact on civilisation, it is no more just preparing students to utilise AI, but about shaping the right mindset and guiding values to help them collaborate with AI. This is where humans have the edge that no machine intelligence can match.
Towards this end, next week this feature will discuss the possibilities and questions that arise for AI in education.
(The writer is a Human Capital Strategist and Educator; meaning she invests in humans like blue chip stocks and teaches them how not to crash the market.)
