The rapid advance of artificial intelligence during the past six months has many technology workers worried about their jobs. Recent reports show that generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard have the potential to replace tech workers like software developers and engineers across the tech landscape.
“The rise of modern artificial intelligence means that the skills of yesterday are no longer sufficient to keep tech workers secure in their jobs,” says Michael Gibbs, CEO of Go Cloud Careers. “Today’s artificial intelligence is a game changer. It’s the ultimate disruptive technology, profoundly affecting the way we live, work, and play.”
Go Cloud Careers provides comprehensive training programs that position its students for high-performance cloud computing careers. Its distinctive approach to career prep is built on the understanding that technical skills and certifications are not enough to secure elite tech positions. In addition to providing a deep understanding of the tech side of cloud computing, Go Cloud Careers trains its students in the soft skills, business acumen, and leadership skills needed to develop and deploy tech-driven business solutions.
“In years past, engineers served a critical function in the tech space,” Gibbs explains. “Software engineers wrote code. Cloud engineers configured the cloud. Network engineers configured the network. They served a critical function, and they brought a skill that was hard to find. Today, artificial intelligence can do much of what most engineers do in their job, meaning it’s time for tech pros in engineering positions and elsewhere to evolve.”
Staying competitive by embracing AI
Most media outlets are currently framing AI as competition for tech jobs. However, there is another perspective. Tech pros who embrace AI as a tool that can enhance their performance will find plenty of opportunities in the emerging tech workplace.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can assist tech pros in preparing documentation and other paperwork, which is a time-consuming task they regularly must do. AI can provide a draft of written documents that can then be fine-tuned to provide the needed quality and originality. By embracing AI for this task, tech pros can significantly reduce the amount of time and effort they must contribute.
“The engineer of the future can leverage ChatGPT to write the stock code,” Gibbs offers. “Normally, we have people searching through online code repositories, finding code that’s very buggy and tuning and editing it to suit their specific needs. In the world of ChatGPT, Bard, and other generative AI tools, we can ask AI to generate the code that the engineer then tunes. The tools allow them to increase their productivity tenfold.”
Anticipating the new jobs AI will create
A recent report by Goldman Sachs warns that AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million jobs across the total workplace landscape. However, the report also predicts that the innovation sparked by AI-driven tools will also create new employment opportunities.
“As new tech emerges, we need people who understand how to put all the disparate technologies together to improve and maximize business performance,” Gibbs says. “AI, therefore, creates new positions as well. These positions are architecture positions, such as cloud architecture and enterprise architecture. They can’t be replaced by technology because they require someone who can bring together people, processes, and technology to improve business performance. AI will eliminate many ‘hands-on’ tech positions like engineers, but architecture positions will flourish.”
Gibbs also explains that the key to qualifying for those new careers will be a strong understanding of how technology can be used to solve business problems. Those who combine their tech knowledge with business knowledge will be the ones to rise to the top in the modern tech workspace.
“What AI can’t figure out on its own is how to bring the technology together to create a cohesive solution that either improves society or optimizes business performance,” Gibbs says. “Achieving that requires speaking to the organization’s leaders and learning their business goals, business pain points, and business challenges. That takes soft skills, executive presence, business acumen, and leadership skills. Technology professionals who can deliver on the human side and the tech side will be the ones who get ahead in the modern world of AI.”
