Impact Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) On Jobs

Q: What will be the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on jobs?
A: AI will change the economy from A to I – ie, from an A-shaped system to an I-shaped system.

Since the Industrial Revolution (c1800), the structure of the economy has been like this:

That is, the economy had:
1. A few high-skilled jobs (scientists + researchers)
2. Some medium-skilled jobs (engineers + managers)
3. Many low-skilled jobs (workers + operators)
Thus the economy was roughly A-shaped.

Now AI is simplifying most tasks/functions so that they can be done even with low skills. So it is converting the medium-skilled jobs into low-skilled jobs – effectively pushing jobs from the middle to the bottom. And it is creating high-skilled jobs at the top – scientists/researchers to design and build these AI systems.

So the economy will become like this:

That is, the economy will have:
1. Many high-skilled jobs (scientists + researchers)
2. A few medium-skilled jobs (engineers + managers)
3. Many low-skilled jobs (workers + operators)
Thus the economy will become roughly I-shaped.

[Idea source: R Jagannathan, Swarajya magazine]