"Will AI affect your job?"

A question I saw on Twitter. This list is just random thoughts on the subject.

1. Yes, AI will affect your job.

That doesn't mean you will automatically be made obsolete but it will have an impact.

2. But what if you are made obsolete at work?

What is your backup plan for that outcome? What are you doing to enhance your value in your current field? Are you learning about a new field to work in that you might enjoy?

3. Robo Advisors & AI ETFs

Talking about my industry, robo advisors have been around for quite awhile and although not truly AI as far as I know it seems like an easy path to AI constructing portfolios. The first AI ETF, a fund that used AI to choose stocks, hit the market a while ago and now there are ETFs that capitalize on companies in the AI space.

4. Can you learn to work with AI?

What would it mean in your industry to work with AI? There are likely many fields where AI could be a tool that results in a better product or service for the end customer. Chat GPT seems to shy away from picking stocks but I think it could evolve to help with optimizing asset allocation. There's plenty of software out there that purports to do this but maybe AI could be an improvement over the software? I don't know but it seem plausible.

5. Can you just quit?

This is about optionality and probably pointed more toward people in their 40's and older. Most people in their 20's and 30's are less likely to have this optionality and more likely to have to figure something out. Someone who is 50, has a decent balance in their account and no more mortgage can probably look for the next thing without having to stay at the old thing.

6. Will we be working for AI?

That might not be worded very well but there could be certain fields where AI does the work and we implement it. That work flow could be described as AI working for us, it does the work and we get the benefit.

7. It is still early

It seems to me that people are talking about AI far more than it is actually being used. That might persist for quite a while and then use of it might increases dramatically.

8. What about the one you can't see coming?

We can know what we don't know up to a point. Part of this conversation is about whether our job can be lost due to AI? There are many reasons that people lose their job and you can't really predict what might cause that to happen so much as prepare for job loss more broadly regardless of whether it is related to creative destruction, your company failing, your health failing or anything else.

Here's an example of job loss that I don't know what category is right, act of God maybe? It is June 1st and there haven't been any fire assignments for any of the departments in our area. All the local departments are part of a dispatch group for large fires outside the area. When a fire starts some place, a request comes in to our dispatch group and the department that is first up takes the assignment if they want it. These usually start coming in April. So far nothing. We have guys who rely on these fire assignments for their income or at least a portion of their income and so far nothing. This has nothing to do with AI but is an example of lost income for a reason that might not be easily predicted.