GenAI and India’s Workplace
A survey shared by LinkedIn notes that most professionals expect their roles to change within the next twelve months
Debates on GenAI be damned! Because, more than 80% of the respondents to a recent survey believe that ChatGPT and its ilk could transform their respective roles in the organization within the next twelve months. And in case you are keen to join this bandwagon, the organization that conducted the survey also offers support to stay relevant.
GAI technologies, including ChatGPT, are poised to start to change the way we work. In fact, 47% of US executives believe that using generative AI will increase productivity, and 92% agree that people skills are more important than ever. This means jobs won’t necessarily go away but they will change as will the skills necessary to do them, says the LinkedIn survey report.
Majority of Indians expect job changes due to Gen AI
The report said 81% of professionals in India expected their roles to change within the next year due to the influence of GAI. While 60% of those surveyed admit to feeling overwhelmed, 39% are concerned about keeping pace with rapid AI developments. While 68% claim to use GenAI in some form, 71% are keen to learn more with millennials leading the pack at 54%.
The report notes that for being better prepared to face the changing workplace ecosystem, employers would need to focus on upskilling and reskilling professionals to boost AI literacy to make its adoption easier and more seamless. When it comes to AI talent, some of the fastest growing AI-specific skills added to LinkedIn profiles globally in 2022 were tied to GAI, such as question answering and classification, it says.
Gen AI skills on the growth path – sez who?
A brief analysis of how AI skills are spreading across 25 countries suggests that the pace at which members on LinkedIn are adding AI skills to their profiles has nearly doubled since the launch of ChatGPT. It grew from 7.7% during May-November last year to 13% during the November to June period.
Of course, it requires a massive leap of faith to accept these numbers, as there is no way of verifying how much is actually based on real skill enhancements. Since LinkedIn profiles aren’t made under oath, one can only count on the inherent human goodness to accept that there is no need to lie about one’s professional accomplishments.
India among countries with fastest AI skills growth
However, coming back to the report itself, LinkedIn notes that its members across the world added AI skills to their profiles at a pace faster than ever before. Based on AI Skills Index data from 25 countries, the AI-skilled members swelled by nine times compared to January 2016. It showed Singapore, Finland, Ireland, India and Canada as the regions with fastest growth.
The report quotes Karin Kimbrough, Chief Economist at LinkedIn, “To realize the full promise of AI productivity gains depends on the diffusion of skills across geographies, industries, and talent. AI adoption and optimization of its use will of course take time, but at this early stage it appears that the pace of diffusion is getting underway. The brightest global economic outcome is one where innovation can scale borders and boost productivity growth for all.“
US users set to leverage GAI to automate jobs
In case one isn’t convinced, the report quotes its Economic Graph Research Institute to suggest that 84% of US members are in jobs that could leverage GAI to automate at least a quarter of repetitive tasks and increase productivity. While GAI will reduce the time professionals spend on some skills, such as writing or data analysis, its influence isn’t limited to reducing routine work.
GAI will also drive up demand for other skills, especially people and specialized skills. For example, GAI might lead a language translator to shift their focus from doing literal translations to reviewing and certifying machine-generated translations, or specializing on specific legal or literary content, the report notes.
Having provided us with the context, LinkedIn goes on to promote its own AI-led services (which it says has existed for 15 years now) for both job seekers and hirers in addition to marketers and sellers. In doing so, the company also offers a suite of AI courses on the LinkedIn platform.
Finally, just as a reminder of its illustrious owners, the world’s largest professional networking platform says its AI integration is aligned with Microsoft’s leadership in the field and its responsible AI principles. In case you haven’t joined the dots – Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, which pioneered GenAI experiments through ChatGPT.
