Many articles are predicting what will happen in the workplace in 10 years due to generative AI but most of them are quite generic and only paint the future in broad strokes. In this post, I tried to be very specific about how AI will change workplaces in the next 2-3 years.
Programming - no dramatic workplace change
Many programmers already use co-pilot and similar tools to complete code pieces more quickly and it does boost their speed that said, I predict that over the next two years these 2 things will not change:
If you are not a programmer you will not be able to write real applications without hiring a programmer to do so.
Very simple programming like building a website or an informative app would be possible with AI but these use cases are already accessible to non-coders even with existing template-based systems
Say goodbye to writer's block
While many people think that AI can replace writers altogether, I beg to differ. We ran multiple tests on this with over 50 LinkedIn posts. The reality is that AI content is less engaging, not always true, and sometimes kind of weird even with sophisticated prompts and iterations. We did however discover that AI can help with the following:
Making a non-writer into a writer
Getting a writer out of a writer's block
Expanding the type of topics a writer can write about
Service chats will become better
Let’s face it - service chats are usually horrible. The chatbot can only answer a limited number of basic questions. When that limit is met, the prompt can be - please write another message during service hours and a representative will answer you. How stupid is that? I’m not sure if AI is needed to improve that but the public expectation shift that was made as a result of ChatGPT is here to stay. We will no longer accept lame chatbots and companies will have to adapt.
Meetings will become more productive
There are many tools already using AI to make meetings better. Synq Up is one of them but not the only one. An obvious improvement is the ability to transcribe and summarize meetings which in turn allows employees to skip “listen in” situations. I
In addition, tools for keeping meetings shorter, more engaging, and better prepared will emerge but that’s all I can say right now.
No more searching for answers
Most information systems being used by large enterprises today have a search function to allow users to find what they are looking for. Salesforce has it, Confluence, Jira, Monday, and everyone else too. However, the user question is usually something like: What is the contract value of our ABC customer, or what smartphone models does our system support? These are specific questions that are not served well through basic search functionality and could be served extremely well by an AI-powered chat interface.
Training will have more simulations
There is a difference between studying the books and actually putting the theory into practice. The problem is that today's practice is highly reliant on putting an employee in a situation where the stakes could be high. Simulating a customer call, a job interview, or a price negotiation is much easier with the power of AI. Especially this is true when we are talking about a knowledge worker whose job is mainly oral and written communication.
SEO will be fully automated
The heavy lifting in search engine optimization is writing short pieces of text with specific guidelines and - Title tags, meta description, alt text, and h2 headings, … All of this could be automated with AI even today and I’m sure there are companies already working on that.
Don’t fire your designer yet
Creating specific illustrations for websites, apps and web applications with AI still has a long way to go. Sure, if you have a designer - AI can save him a lot of time removing elements and filling the gap or making a square image into a landscape one by generating more background. There are also specific situations in which you need to generate a bulk of variations where AI can help but these are edge cases.
So that’s it for now. Obviously, I don’t know the future but I’m shooting for 6 out of 8 of these to be correct. We will know sooner or later.