@aajah.sauter AI literacy in the workplace may be a bigger deal than we thought. A report from Indeed provides us with some insight
EDMONTON, Alta. — Whether its the self-check out or chatbots talking with customers, automation in the workplace is often seen as a job killer. And while the explosive growth in artificial intelligence brings fears of further job further displacement, it may actually create new opportunities, a Canadian employment report suggests.
Indeed’s 2024 Hiring Trends Report has found that AI and AI skills are popping up in more and more job ads.
“At the end of October, GenAI was mentioned in 0.06% of Canadian job postings on Indeed, a tiny but quickly growing share,” the report states.
The report also found that generative AI could complete many of the tasks listed in most job postings.
“In certain cases, there’s the potential for GenAI to fully automate tasks, which could have negative implications for some existing workers, many of whom are in jobs previously insulated from the specter of automation,” the report says.
“But in others, and perhaps more often, GenAI’s impacts will instead be through the augmentation of jobs, with new technology serving as a tool to improve the productivity of existing workers, hopefully allowing them to focus on more human aspects of a job.”
The report found that 21 per cent of Canadian job postings on Indeed in 2023 were in occupations with high exposure to GenAI-driven change, such as in tech, legal services, and accounting.
There have been numerous incidents where lawyers have used chatbots and AI to help with their cases, resulting in disciplinary action.
In accounting, the use of AI is growing. KPMG’s Edmonton office, for instance, is currently looking for an an “AI Manager” to expand its use of AI across its services.
KPMG did not respond to a request for comment.
Tech companies, however, are feeling the shift the most.
In April 2023, Dropbox, a file hosting service, announced that they planned to reduce their global workforce by 16 percent, laying off about 5000 employees.
“In an ideal world, we’d simply shift people from one team to another. And we’ve done that wherever possible,” says CEO Drew Houston in an official statement, “However, our next stage of growth requires a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product development.”
In academia, English major Beth Murray says that she has noticed changes in her classroom due to AI writing assistant tools used by students to complete assignments. She says that her professor in one course begun having students handwrite essays.
“We have to write in-class essays instead of writing typed essays at home because the teachers have a better way of seeing your natural way of writing when it comes to a research paper or one with secondary sources,” says Murray.
“They can see your writing skill level and compare it to your other work. That way, it would be easier to tell if AI had written it.”
The question remains: how might students develop AI literacy skills if taught to avoid it in certain disciplines over others? Will the gap in understanding and grey areas about AI usage set students and new graduates back when it comes to job searching?
It is evident that, in some disciplines, AI literacy is imperative, and in other disciplines, the likelihood of one encountering AI on the job is high. So, what are universities and tech companies doing to foster growth in that area?
There are companies in Edmonton who advocate for the importance of using AI as a tool rather than a crutch and seeing AI as a friend and not an enemy. Companies like ALTAML and Alberta Machine Learning Institute (AMII) provide services for consulting businesses on how to implement AI in the workplace.
Furthermore, they advocate for and teach responsible AI literacy in the workplace. “We grow AI capacity through advancing leading-edge research, delivering exceptional educational offerings, and providing business advice – all with the goal of building in-house AI capabilities.” AMII’s website states.
AMII will partner with the University of Alberta and hopefully other Albertan institutions in the future to make that happen.
The goal of the U of A’s new artificial intelligence everywhere course, developed by computing scientist Alona Fyshe and computing science professor Adam White, is to demystify AI usage and provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with the technology before entering their fields of study.
“AI will continue to touch more and more aspects of people’s daily lives but also their careers,” White tells the U of A. “It’s really important that students coming out of the U of A have an appreciation for those nuances.”
Universities like MacEwan have extensive resources on their sites that outline how professors can use AI in the classroom and its relation to academic integrity violations. MacEwan, among other universities in Edmonton, such as NorQuest, the U of A, and NAIT, all declined to comment.
According to the MacEwan Centre for Teaching and Learning on AI website, the university’s stance on AI usage remains as follows: “Learning is a human endeavour meant to develop human capacities and characteristics. AI can assist in that endeavour, but the degree that it displaces human thought and inquiry serves to diminish human development.”