As GenAI shifts the balance, mid-career professionals need to learn how to use AI.
Artificial intelligence will transform the way businesses and their employees work, whether in the IT, finance or legal sectors
Forward thinking businesses, and even countries, are upgrading mid-career professionals in order to help them survive and prosper in an era of widespread enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI).
As public sector and business organisations adopt AI rapidly, white-collar professionals face a similar disruption to that experienced by blue-collar workers in the nineteenth century.
According research by OpenAI, the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions, accountants, legal assistants and financial analysts will be affected, as well as journalists, translators, and public relations professionals. Goldman Sachs released figures in March 2023 indicating that 300 million jobs would be affected by AI across all sectors.
Tipping point for a generation
Though generative AI is a concept that dates back decades, its widespread adoption began around 2022 when ChatGPT was released. It was a warning to governments and businesses that they must prepare for the inevitable disruption.
Nguyen who is also Global Women in AI Chair, spent decades in the finance sector in various business roles, said that “AI is not a concept of the future.” It’s here, and it affects everyone at every level.
However, this does NOT mean that professionals will be replaced by retraining – this does not only mean technical training.
Learn to prosper
The training on AI for nontechnical roles includes professionals learning the underlying knowledge of AI, the AI tools they have available to them, and the use cases that AI can be used in, said Nguyen.
According to CFTE’s whitepaper titled ” AI-fication Of Talents“, three types of professionals will emerge. The report stated that there would be a “mass displacement” in roles centered on execution, which will become increasingly automated. “Supercharged professionals” who use AI to expand scope will also emerge.
Nguyen warned the UK was behind in preparing the workforce for AI. “We’re not preparing people the right way, because we don’t focus on adult education in a large scale,” she told Computer Weekly. She cited a Singapore project that CFTE was involved in designing. It involves assisting people in mid-career transitions. The focus is on the technology and finance sector, with financial support provided to those who wish to change careers.
Singaporeans aged over 40 received funds to refresh skills. A large number of them took up IT-related training in areas such as artificial intelligence.
In 2024, around 555,000 people took part in programmes supported by SkillsFuture Singapore. This was up from 520,000 in 2023.
According to Singapore newspaper The Straits Times,
Although Singapore has a population of six million people, the same challenges are faced worldwide.
Call to action for all sectors
Financial services is one of the most affected sectors, as it leads in AI innovation and investments.
Bloomberg Intelligenceestimated that AI will replace hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US financial sector, specifically Wall Street. CIOs were asked by the organisation to estimate that 3% of their workforce would be cut in average. Around a quarter expects the workforce to be reduced by between 5% to 10% as AI takes on roles. The back and middle office will be the most affected. According to research conducted by banking industry benchmarking company Evident, AI-related jobs could be the only “safe” jobs in the banking sector because financial organisations are “relentlessly pushing forward” with AI-led transformaiton. The report on the banking industry found that the number of AI developers hired increased by 6%, the hiring of data engineers by 14% and the number AI and software implementation specialists by 42%.
While the finance sector is at the forefront of the AI revolution’s rapid expansion, the technology has far-reaching effects. Amanda Stent, Bloomberg’s head for AI, told Computer Weekly recently that “no revolution has ever occurred in history without resulting in job transformation”.
They added, “Some jobs change and some disappear.” “But I also think that there has never been a revolution in history where it didn’t lead to more jobs being created overall. I think that’s true with AI, which is going to augment a lot people.” The UK regulator for solicitors, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), recently authorized the first law firm in the UK to use AI.
AI is the only way to provide legal servicesMark Lewis, a technology-specialist lawyer at Stephenson Harwood said that most, “if, not virtually all” serious law firms, are using GenAI and AI operationally.
“Typical uses include document review, summarisation and analysis, legal research, case studies and predicting outcomes of cases.
There is a lot of hype around it. It is clear that AI will be a part of the legal process at all levels. But, as with many other sectors, it will take time for legal use cases to mature.
However, he said, firms are preparing for AI’s impact: “We have, like many other firms, made GenAI tools available to our lawyers, which they can use within certain parameters, and in accordance to our AI/GenAI policy.
We want our lawyers to be familiar with the GenAI tools and its processes, understand their strengths and limitations, as well as become experts in creating and refining prompts.
For me, the most important thing is that we as a community learn to live with and work with AI. It should begin as early as possible, and continue throughout our lives.
AI is a huge opportunity for the IT industry, but it is also changing the way suppliers operate.
Workers within the IT industry will also need to learn how to use AI. Amrinder Singh is the head of EMEA & APAC operations for Indian IT services company Hexaware. He told Computer Weekly that the entire staff, or around 30,000 people, will be trained on how to harness AI.
Amrinder Singh described in shocking terms the dangers to workers who are not properly trained. “We said there was no future for people with single-skilled jobs,” he said. “Unless you have domain knowledge and AI and technology skills, you won’t survive.”
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