UAE: Will AI Take Our Jobs? Reskilling, Upskilling Most Important Tools, Says Expert

As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves and the question of whether it will replace jobs arises , an AI expert says that the most important skills in our time are reskilling, unskilling, and upskilling.

Alaa Dalghan, managing director of consultancy firm Cognit DX, was speaking on the first day of Dubai AI Week, taking place from Monday, April 21, to Friday, April 25.

The question of whether new technologies will replace current jobs has long been debated , Dalghan said, recalling how“we've been through this before many times with the automation revolution, with the information revolution, and today with the AI revolution". He added,“It's true that new tech has always destroyed jobs , but it has always, always created more jobs.”

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However, he said that some people, such as those nearing retirement, may not have the means to be reskilled or upskilled. The solution would be a social safety net, and Dalghan said that“many countries and cities around the world are experimenting with universal basic income (UBI) just to prepare for this particular eventuality".

Another skill that would be required in the near future when applying for jobs could be prompt engineering, which is the process of sending accurate instructions to the AI model to optimise results.

“Prompt engineering is a skill that everybody could learn. You could teach it to your five-year-old kids, and you could teach it to your 105-year-old grandmother. It's also a skill that everybody should learn because even though it's optional today, it's mandatory tomorrow,” the AI specialist said.

Jobs that require manual work, like plumbing for example, will stand strong against the AI craze, while those that require menial and repetitive tasks will be most at risk.“If you spend your entire day doing a lot of copy-paste, yes, your job is at risk. If your job entails innovation, higher order thinking, then your job is not at risk,” he said.

“It turns out that soft skills are really, really hard,” he emphasised, referring to skills such as team leading, conflict resolution, negotiation, innovation, imagination, creativity and empathy. He said that instead of AI replacing jobs, it will only eliminate 50 per cent of the tasks of 100 per cent of the jobs.

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