Source : THE AGE NEWS
When future historians look back on this period of work in a hundred year’s time, there are two simple letters that will dominate their recounting: A and I.
The sudden rise of AI in the workplace, and its inevitable impact on every corner of our lives, will go down as one of the most axis-tilting shifts to the way that we work. Now, I’m not being overly dramatic here for no reason, the early advancements in AI are just the start of an exponential curve in front of us.
Artificial intelligence is already disrupting Australian workplaces.Credit: iStock
For years, many people assumed that robots would come for lower paid jobs first, like factory workers or front-of-house staff, before gradually working their way up the wage chain.
But the sudden arrival of generative AI (which can create content like reports and images) and agentic AI (where technology works autonomously on behalf of a user) has shown that no amount of higher education makes you immune from these trends.
Increasing AI adoption can bring on two extreme reactions: fear and excitement. Both are valid responses as we better understand the potential and dangers of this new technology, but whether we like it or not, AI is already being used in most workplaces.
Your colleagues and competitors are drafting emails, reviewing contracts, writing presentations, analysing data and using it to help with every task we used to think only other humans could do.
Use of AI programs, like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, can have immediate and immense impact on your day-to-day work.
However, the uptake is pretty uneven. A new Australian survey by Humanova found that mid-sized businesses with 50 to 99 employees are leading the charge when it comes to AI adoption. The report’s author, Dr Sean Gallagher, says the reason for this is that just over a third of employees of firms this size are “power users” who are currently using AI at least daily.
If you’re not one of them, there’s a real and growing risk that you might become professionally obsolete as those around you transform their roles through AI.
“I spoke to an HR professional who is looking for a new role,” says Gallagher, “She was shortlisted for four opportunities but pulled out of two of them because those companies had a ‘no AI’ policy. In her words, she could not imagine ever not working with AI.”
This week Microsoft released their latest Work Trend Index that draws on insights from 31,000 workers across 31 countries, including a thousand from Australia. It indicated that 40 per cent of local business leaders said they’re already using AI agents to fully automate some part of their workstreams, and 70 per cent are considering hiring new AI-focused roles in the coming year.
If you haven’t heard the term “AI agents” yet, you’re about to hear a lot more about them. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, predicted at the start of this year that 2025 will see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies.
“AI agents will completely transform how humans work,” says Gallagher, predicting that technology that’s trained to work on tasks and strategy with little supervision is where it’s all heading.
“Agents are bigger than automation, it’s an exponential shift in productivity,” he says. “The real change isn’t what AI agents will do, it’s how humans will evolve. We’ll become orchestrators rather than executors of work. It’s a fundamental reimagining of what a job actually is.”
If that has you instinctively leaning towards the fear end of the spectrum, the good news is that we’re only at the start of this change. It’s not too late to jump into the deep end and learn how it all works as it evolves.
Use of AI programs, like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, can have immediate and immense impact on your day-to-day work. Start with something simple, like summarising a document or asking it to help you with admin tasks before gradually move up to more creative and strategic work.
“The key is making AI your daily work companion, not waiting for the perfect use case,” says Gallagher. “Our research indicates power users can save up to a full day per week, but you’ve got to use it consistently to get there.”
He says you should think about learning how to use AI in the same that most of us learnt how to drive. “At first, you’re hyper-aware of every potential danger with your car,” says Gallagher. “But with experience, you develop an intuitive partnership – you and the car working together seamlessly.
“The same happens with AI – regular use builds your ability to work alongside AI as a collaborative partner, just as a skilled driver works with their vehicle.”
It’s natural to feel both fear and awe when the future arrives at our doorstop quicker than we ever imagined. AI is here, it’s inside almost every workplace, and it’s now up to you how wide you want to open the door.
Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com
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