Is AI taking over? Not quite-here’s why
“Will AI steal our jobs?” It’s a question I hear constantly, especially from my students. The fear is understandable: if AI can automate repetitive tasks, won’t that lead to fewer opportunities? Business consultants love to amplify this narrative, but they’re missing the forest for the trees. As someone who’s experimented with AI in my own field-education-I can confidently say that AI isn’t replacing us. It’s making us better. Here’s what I’ve learned.
AI isn’t a job killer-it’s a job creator
Let’s start with the big picture. AI isn’t here to eliminate jobs; it’s here to augment them. By automating mundane tasks, AI frees up knowledge workers to focus on higher-value activities. And when value creation increases, so does demand for skilled professionals. In the long run, AI will generate more jobs, not fewer. To understand why, let’s dive into four real-world examples across law, telecom, education, and healthcare.
Law: How OCR transformed the legal profession
Take the legal industry. Optical Character Recognition (OCR), an AI-powered technology, revolutionized how lawyers work. Before OCR, legal teams had to manually read, annotate, and organize documents-a time-consuming and costly process. OCR changed all that, enabling instant text search and analysis. This not only slashed costs but also democratized access to legal services, increasing demand for lawyers.
Today, AI is reshaping the legal field once again. Tools like FLANK.AI, which automates legal document summarization, allow lawyers to focus on strategy and client advocacy instead of paperwork. Sure, some clerical roles were replaced, but the overall impact was positive: more value creation and more opportunities for skilled professionals.
Telecom: The AT&T switchboard study
Another compelling example comes from the telecom industry. When AT&T automated its switchboard operations, jobs for switchboard operators disappeared. But this automation led to cheaper, more accessible communication, which in turn sparked the growth of entirely new industries. The result? A net increase in job opportunities for the next generation.
Education: My AI clone at eCornell
Last year, I decided to test AI’s potential in education by creating an AI clone of myself. I used r2decide, a company that specializes in AI sales agents, to replicate my knowledge. The result? A 24/7 teaching assistant that students can interact with anytime. This AI clone has supercharged my course, “Designing and Building AI Solutions,” by enabling no-code business idea generation and providing round-the-clock support.
But does this mean I’ve replaced myself as a teacher? Not even close. While AI can summarize information, it can’t predict future trends or engage in deep discussions about AI risks. Teaching is about more than delivering knowledge-it’s about guiding students to think critically and adapt to new challenges.
Healthcare: The evolving role of doctors
AI is also transforming healthcare. During his medical training, my friend Pete Clardy, now at Google Health, had to memorize countless symptoms and diagnoses. With the advent of the internet, the focus shifted to summarizing information effectively. Now, AI tools like MedicalBERT can summarize medical data better than humans, freeing doctors to focus on critical thinking and patient care.
The future is uneven-but it’s bright
AI isn’t an existential threat to jobs. It’s a tool that enhances human capabilities, especially for knowledge workers like engineers, managers, educators, and doctors. Yes, adaptation is necessary. Those who perform static, repetitive tasks may need to retrain. But the real question is: How do we, as a society, support this transition? And here’s the kicker-AI can help with that too, under human guidance.
So, is AI replacing us? No. It’s pushing us to evolve. And that’s a good thing.
