Tag Archives: jobs

Computers, New

How AI is Changing the Future of Job Market

What else captures the imagination than artificial intelligence?

In the past, the very idea of human-manufactured intelligence stood as an allegory from anything from the pitfalls of mankind itself to the dangers of playing god. Today, however, AI is very much a reality and perhaps shows how well early science-fiction writing predicted a future of digital intelligence. What remains is a tremendous responsibility on the shoulders of us humans to create intelligent, yet ethical, technology – but not everyone sees it that way. 

In the wrong hands, AI capabilities become an incredible weapon to fuel social unrest, political instability, support propaganda of authoritarian regimes, and even build an autonomous battlefield. In China alone there are over 200 million active surveillance cameras – nearly four times more than in the US. Utilized by the Chinese police along with high-tech facial recognition eyewear, law enforcement is able to scan the faces of every citizen, picking our criminals and gathering enormous amounts of data along the way. In some ways, AI seems to understand us better than we understand ourselves, for better or for worse, and while our lives may not always be on the line, our data sure is. AI phishing tools for hackers can hyper-target specific victims and quickly sift through datasets identifying the most vulnerable victims. Customized malicious links, nearly indiscernible from authentic links, can be generated in the blink of an eye targeted to individuals or entire databases. 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab described a hope and noble intentions for AI – “Whether breakthrough occurs in Silicon Valley, Beijing, or anywhere else, it has the potential to make everyone’s life better for the entire world.” Where some leaders would see AI as a tool of mass control, this isn’t a sentiment shared by every forward-thinker. In 2017, Google built a project known as PAIR, or People + AI Research, with the simple yet deeply complex goal of building an AI that treats everyone equally. Tackling our own human biases, prejudices, and problematic thinking, this project begins with the good that evaluate and improve on the datasets that train AI itself, taking it right to the source. 

From any perspective, it’s clear to see how powerful AI is. Early in 2018, Amazon opened its completely cashier-less grocery store that is still a successful operation today. A living example of AI in service industries and a small glimpse into a possible future of full automation, more and more service jobs may be on the chopping block in the coming years. By the mid 2030s, artificial intelligence and automation is predicted to hit 38%, potentially eliminating many US jobs. Industries like manufacturing, retail and construction are at the forefront of being hit the hardest.  All told, millions of jobs could be lost to the cold hand o robotics but it’s what needs to happen in the meantime to reach this reality. Whilst 37% of people are concerned about automation cramping their positions at work, 73% of people say that technology will never replace the human mind, further reminding us that AI is only possible and will only go as far as we allow it to.

An automated future doesn’t necessarily mean more robots – if done right, it could mean more humanity. What does the future of AI look like to you? Detailed in this infographic are the current capabilities of automation, both for good and evil, and what responsibilities we all have to ensure that this technology works with us and not against us. 

 

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Marketing

How To Make Your Side-Business Thrive – Modern Marketing

When you are an entrepreneur, it doesn’t matter if you are a baby boomer, a millennial or even a generation X. We all share that one common trait, we hate working for someone else. So, we work insane hours (that make our friends look at us in awe) to get a side business off the ground.

The big problem?

Despite global markets being in a fluid state of motion, consumer budgets are growing tighter.

Even worse?

Trust has never been harder to earn from a business perspective.

So, there you have it. If you are not seeing the results you were hoping for from your business –

it’s probably because you need to start thinking outside the box.

Which is exactly what I want to help you with in this article. We include three tips to help you start off the right way straight from the word go.

Step One | The Most Important Step – Know Your Business

Here is a prime example, back in 2016 a young entrepreneur started a fitness blog. It all started on Instagram, and grew from there. But over time, the lack of vision, and the failure to launch a brand-image irreparably hurt the business.

This step may be common knowledge, but we cannot emphasize how important it is to know your business.

When you are working a full-time job, and trying to launch a business on the side – you will get distracted. You will lose focus.

Which is why the first thing you want to do is define your business. Ask yourself what is your vision? Where do you want the business to be in 5-years?

But the most important aspect of your written plan should be what problem do you solve for customers? What makes you unique over competitors, and why are potential customers interested in that?

Here is a guide to writing a simple business plan for complete beginners.

Don’t Be Afraid To Think Outside The Box – Being Different Is A Good Thing

Here is a scary fact, over 543,000 businesses are started up MONTHLY in America. That’s right people just like you, looking to escape their mundane office jobs.

But it gets worse.

More than half of these businesses fail – every month.

Now there are tons of reasons why. From a lack of work ethic, right down to an unclear vision for the business. But another reason why businesses fail more than they succeed is because they forget in the business world – you want to stick out like a sore thumb.

You want to offer a unique angle to a service or product that your competitors are offering.

Whether it be through unique, high-quality social media content. Informative blog posts and podcasts, cut-edge discounts and specials… or if you really want to be unique, why not revolutionize your marketing campaign; personalize with customers and build trust by creating your own cards.

There are so many ways that you can differentiate yourself – it is important to take the time and put some thought into it. You’re trying to be better than the other businesses out there. Don’t think you can’t come up with the next big thing. Put some real thought into it and you’ll be surprised with the results.

Failure Is The Skipping Stone To Success

The biggest mistake you can make is to harbour jealousy when it comes to entrepreneurs who have made it in life.

“We all reap the seeds that we sow”

What you may forget is these individuals in the nice cars, with the dough to show off. The businesses that are considered pioneers in the industry; there is nothing different behind their business and yours.

These were not overnight success stories. You need to be prepared to fail. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, even Gary Vaynerchuk all hit their own stumbling blocks, and look where they are now.

Whether it’s as simple as a bad review from a new client, or a huge milestone falls for the roof – stay strong, and keep working. You will make it as long as you never lose sight of the end goal.

Here are some great tips to help you cope with business failure.

Make Sure You Maximize Your Productivity Daily

We all have those days. Where we think we are working hard. We seem to be super busy. But at the end of the day, we look back and think, “How did I waste so much time today.”

The problem is.

When you are trying to work 2-jobs at once, well… wasting time is not something you can afford. We all have the same minutes, hours, and seconds in a day – it’s a simple matter of how you invest them.

A great tip is to make use of organization tools, I personally love Trello, it keeps me on my game at all times.

If you really want to maximize your after-hour work productivity to exponentially grow your business, make use of a sweet little time productivity trick known as Pomodoro. Which essentially involves removing distractions for 25-minutes at a time, and focusing solely on work.

These tips will help you excel at your job. Keep these in mind – and think of new strategies to help you along the way. Your ideas will really help you and you’ll be thankful in the long run.

 

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Author Bio:

Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.

 

General

Jobs You Wouldn’t Expect To Be Threatened by Technology But Are

These days, it’s hard to talk about the business landscape without bringing up automation. With technologies as diverse as machine learning, robotics and 3D printing business automation is changing poised to revolutionize society.

At this point you’ve probably heard about the autonomous drones and vehicles coming for transportation and retail jobs. If you’ve used online tax preparation recently, then you have an idea why there’s no hiring glut for tax preparers these days.

At this point, everyone knows what robotics means for factory jobs. But have you heard that your local bakery or news organization could someday be run by robots?

As automation becomes more advanced and more businesses reap the financial rewards, automated processes will take over more diverse roles within business. Here are some professions that may at first glance be robot-proof, but are becoming increasingly automated.

Masonry and Construction Workers

Like any profession, construction work has benefitted tremendously from mechanization. From the nail gun to the crane, it’s hard to imagine construction without power tools and equipment.

These days, robots are manufacturing building components in factories and laying bricks at construction sites. Drones allow one person to quickly survey sites that would have required a helicopter flight and team of personnel in the past.

It’s now even possible to “print” a house using computer modelling, concrete and a robotic “printer.” If people can hook up some cables and tubes and print a house in a day, what does that say about the future of construction jobs?

Farmers

Taxis, trains and drones aren’t the only vehicles that can be automated. It isn’t hard to imagine fleets of robotic tractors and combines rolling across gentle rural hills. However, automation can do a lot more than plow fields on the farm.

Machines are being created now that will allow farmers to weed and prune plants without the help of human workers. There are even robots milking cows in Germany.

Automated farming isn’t expected to really start paying off for another few years, but about 10 percent of farms in the U.S. have already begun switching. That means fewer and fewer jobs for humans in the coming years.

Office Workers

Blue collar jobs have been among the first and hardest-hit types of work to become obsolete at the hands of robots. But factory workers aren’t the only ones whose jobs are being automated away.

Tasks that used to require entire high-rises full of workers are now being done by small teams. Personal computers have already revolutionized business offices, and that trend is showing no sign of slowing down as artificial intelligence makes it possible to automate even more.

Accounting is one area that has benefitted from automation, thanks to the increasing intelligence of software and digitization of documents. It’s now possible to oversee an accounts payable system that would have at one time required a dozen workers and a warehouse of paper with automation software.

Customer service employees are also being increasingly replaced by chatbots and other software designed to mimic human interaction. As more and more clerical and office jobs are automated, the perception that business automation is a blue-collar problem will become increasingly antiquated.

Journalists

It seems like writing would be a profession unlikely to become automated. However, automation is becoming increasingly responsible for the financial reports, sports updates and other content we read and watch each day.

Machines excel at combining data, but what they haven’t been great at is providing context. Thanks to machine learning, language processing is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Business like the Associated Press, Comcast and Yahoo have been using automation to create reports for a few years now. Content is now being generated at a rate that would have required thousands of workers located around the world in the old days.

Machines aren’t yet able to reliably gather first-hand information and turn it into a compelling human interest piece, so the machines aren’t yet here to replace human writers. However, as machine learning and language processing becomes more advanced, the trend of needing fewer humans to accomplish more won’t be stopping any time soon.

Bakers

Yes, even your local artisanal bakery may someday be automated thanks to automated baking systems that produce consistently high quality loaves. Automation helps bakers to reduce waste and produce a consistent product, so it makes sense for them to adopt it where they can.

Larger bakeries are much like factories and have already been reaping the rewards of automation. In the past, automation has made the most sense for large-scale operations.

But as it becomes easier and more cost-effective to automate processes in small business such as artisanal bakeries, automation will begin to penetrate further into our work lives in unexpected ways.

 

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Author Bio:

Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.