Gary Vee says artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for your job, so perhaps the advice here is to look sharp and be ready.
In case you haven’t heard of the guy, Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who goes by the name Gary Vee and is the founder and CEO of VaynerMedia, a marketing agency. Vaynerchuk first gained fame in the mid-2000s for his work in the wine industry where he built a large following through his online video series called Wine Library TV.
Now he’s everywhere on every social media, like a social media tracker who won’t leave you alone until you buy something. However, he’s mostly respected and liked, broadly speaking.
As people continue freaking out about whether they’ll have a job in the near future, Gary Vee decided to give his opinion about AI. He says that AI is coming for our jobs, and we’d better be ready.
“AI is the tractor. Most people worked on farms back in the day. And then the tractor came out. People found new jobs. I think you can have any opinion you want about that, but technology doesn’t have an opinion. It’s going to do what it’s going to do, and it’s not going to stop. So if you do a job that AI is capable of doing soon, you should think about that.”
Gary Vee: AI will make huge changes
Gary Vee said the AI takeover isn’t so dissimilar to the past: “I gave the same keynote speech in 1997. The analogy I used then was, look, if you’re the top salesman or saleswoman for the Yellow Pages, you might want to consider what Yahoo and Google are doing.”
He says, “AI is going to do a lot. And it should.”
Vaynerchuk goes on to say that he thinks people are being hypocritical about AI. “You love technology when it works for you.” But not, apparently, when it takes our jobs.
In the end, Vaynerchuk says, “I think it’s coming fast. And it’s gonna be awesome. There are going to be certain rule changes. But humans have proven that they have the ability to adjust to a new reality.”
The big AI questions
According to Professor Toby Walsh, the Chief Scientist at the University of New South Wales’ AI Institute who called in from a plane 36,000ft in the air with The Chainsaw, AI will take away some jobs, but will also create new ones too.
He believes the main question is whether it will destroy more jobs than it will create. Historically, technology has always created more jobs than it destroyed. But he says there’s no guarantee that it will do continue to do so in the future.
“Even if we create as many or more jobs as we destroy, how do we retrain the people whose jobs go for these new jobs? I suspect that is the most important question we should be asking,” he shared.
Not everyone is scared of AI
According to Parity Consulting, AI could take over 20 million jobs by 2030 — once machines have been taught how to learn and work, it could take away four hours of work from Australian workers over the next ten years.
Hima Arafath, a Specialist Consultant at Parity Consulting, shared with The Chainsaw that when we were first introduced to computer, many expected it was thought that there was no longer going to be any manual work — which was far from the case.
“They thought that computers would take over the world. But that hasn’t happened. It is the same with AI. It is going to help humans in a very positive way. AI will be an aid, but it won’t take away actual human beings. AI will not surpass what humans can do.”
Arafath shared that data scientists are a key example of human roles that AI requires to function. “Data scientists play a huge part in AI, and that’s where the recruitment drives are at the moment. And this isn’t going to go down any time soon.”
AI in the Australian workforce
In the Australian workforce, Cisco says that AI will replace some jobs, stating that by 2028, more than 630,000 Australian workers could lose their jobs to technology.
But Arafath shares that this only opens the door to new opportunities. “History has shown us that when new technologies are introduced, they often create new opportunities and jobs and displace old ones. For example, when the steam engine was first invented, it replaced many workers in the textile industry. But it also created new opportunities for railroad workers and other professions that were necessary to support the steam engine.”
Parity consulting say that AI could create 12 million more jobs than it displaces. “The increase in efficiency and productivity that AI brings will mean businesses can expand and create new roles for people to fill. We are already seeing this happen in many industries where AI is being implemented, such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.”
Maybe one day even Gary Vee will be replaced? But you will probably be able to go to one of his talks, telling us about the experience.
