Application of AI brings efficiency to human endeavours
By Selorm GBORBIDZI, Accra
Data and AI Privacy Expert at Npontu Technologies Limited, Madam Deborah Asmah, has allayed fears about the potential unemployment risk of Artificial Intelligence Technology adoption in the workplace.
Although there is widespread apprehension about AI taking human jobs, Madam Asmah firmly believes that AI will play a complementary role in the workplace, freeing up more time for humans to engage in work that involves strategy and empathetic relations.
Speaking at a business roundtable on ZED 101.9 fm, themed ‘Leveraging AI to drive business efficiency, innovation and productivity,’ she said, “What [AI] does is give you time to look at the other aspects of the customer experience. [The introduction of AI, however,] requires us to upgrade our skills.”
She opined that one can only be replaced by AI if they are content with doing routine tasks and not upskilling in the job market.
These routine functions are things that AI and technology, in general, will find ways of automating.
Founder and CEO of FloodGates International Corporation, Oswald Anonadaga, noted that job disruptions come with any human technological advancement.
According to him, mankind has been using technology to automate jobs for hundreds of years, so the issue of disruption is nothing new.
He, however, indicated that with the development of new technology, more jobs are being created, which people might find they enjoy doing more than the mechanical and routine jobs they are presently engaged in and used to.
Founder and CEO of Minohealth AI Labs, Darlington Akogo, advised students to strive to stand out in the wake of AI, since the days of merely regurgitating information will be brought to an end by AI, which can do far more than that.
In his view, it is time academic institutions recognized the impending change and adjusted their methods to reflect this change.
He said that the role of these academic institutions is to prepare their students for the real world as useful members of society.
Akogo holds the view that having an educational system that pretends to be in a world where AI systems do not exist will not work.
He suggested that students should be allowed to use AI solutions in their academic pursuits as this will prepare them for the world they are being trained for in the classroom.
He said, “If you have AI solutions that can already help you create drafts of whatever thesis or idea you have to work on, maybe education should be reoriented from you just giving the right answer to how in-depth your answer is, how creative your answer is. What that means is multiple students will be using the same AI tools. What can student A do to make his answer stand out from student B?”
He therefore called for a reform of education and curricula globally to take into account the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence technology in the workplace.
“In the history of the world, no one has fought technology and won,” he cautioned educational institutions fighting the adoption of AI in education.
