With AI agents and generative AI continuing to affect every aspect of work, there remains a conflicting narrative about what the future of work looks like as technology advances: whether AI replaces workers or augments them.
While technology leaders have famously said that workers who are not using AI are likely to be replaced, the most recent layoffs from Meta, Cisco and GM blame AI for their restructuring, suggesting that the augmentation argument might not be the cause of the mass layoffs.
Despite the uncertainty about the future of work, one thing is for sure: change is coming, and in some cases, it is already here.
“The fundamental nature of work is changing,” said Nikhil Krishnan, CTO of AI software platform vendor C3 AI, on the Targeting AI podcast from AI Business. “In the industries that we are serving, we do not see a mass replacement of humans with AI systems. We are really seeing a reason to deploy those AI systems with critical thinking and hard value capture metrics.”
Krishnan added that, for C3 AI, the future of work is like a pyramid, with the base consisting of workflows that can be automated through agent-like AI applications. Those workflows include invoice processing, purchase orders and customer service responses.
The middle of the pyramids indicates that human workers must be involved. Those are applications such as issuing a loan or evaluating credit.
“You might want the algorithm to make a recommendation,” Krishnan said. “But then, you really want to exercise human judgment as part of that workflow.”
The top of the pyramid is complex use cases, which focus on AI getting more embedded in the practical details of work.
“AI is going to provide recommendations and data points,” Krishnan said, adding that those recommendations are on topics like the type of maintenance needed on an equipment or a certain piece of equipment that is needed in the physical industry. “But you really need an expert human to plan that turnaround, plan that shutdown, plan the maintenance cycle, plan the asset strategies.”
Regardless of how the future of work shapes up, AI systems must be carefully designed and planned, Krishnan continued.
“We’re on the cusp of probably the next industrial revolution and how it evolves,” he said. “There’s going to be a period of experimentation as we roll these systems out while we calibrate what the workflows of the future will look like.”
