The use of Artificial Intelligence is likely to have a significant impact on the workplace, and more importantly in terms of the expected increase in our leisure time. We may have to get used to a world where part time working is the norm and unemployment rates are high.
It is important to firstly understand what Artificial Intelligence is, it is usually understood as technologies working together to enable machines to act with human-like levels of intelligence such as ChatGPT or Chatbot. The introduction of AI has the potential to replace a number of job functions.
Are we ready for a workplace where we are likely to have more time off than work? If a recent report by Goldmans Sachs is to be believed, 300 million jobs could be lost or downgraded in America and Europe with its introduction. Our ability to earn money will be impacted and governments will need to have in place an enhanced benefit system to cope with the level of people out of work.
Some sectors such as health care are likely to benefit from its introduction, such as more efficient diagnostic tools and increased efficiencies in administration tasks. Any tool to diagnose cancer earlier is to be welcomed, however, it is concerning when the technical giants such as Elon Musk and senior figures in Google are concerned about the impact of AI, calling for its regulation.
As businesses introduce more and more AI technologies to automate tasks and make decisions, the use of AI in the workplace raises legal and moral questions regarding the rights of employees and the responsibilities of employers.
The integration of AI in the workplace has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of HR processes, but it also presents new challenges for protecting the rights and interests of employees such as privacy and unfairness.
As companies implement advancing AI technologies to automate tasks and involve it in decision making, the use of AI in the workplace raises a number of issues in terms of the potentially conflicting rights of employees and duties of companies to increase their profits for shareholders. The introduction of AI in the workplace has the potential to improve the efficiency of a business, but it also presents new challenges for protecting the rights and interests of employees.
AI can be used in many of the processes when employing a person. For example, AI can be used to sift CVs by using keywords to select candidates to invite to the next stage of an interview. There is a question, who selects the “keywords” in terms of creating a diverse workforce? AI can help to remove the subjective decision making of a human being and their shortcomings but there is still a potential for misuse. The danger is how far will AI be used to assess a candidate’s suitability? Could it be used to scan the internet for an employee’s social media profiles to build up a picture of a person’s personality without their consent? Are we likely therefore to have a workplace where creative thinking is hindered?
Psychometric testing could be taken over by AI and a candidate may not even come into contact with a human being until they are selected for an interview.
AI could have a benefit to tracking an employee’s performance and remove different constraints being adopted for different employees.
We are in world of change for employment rights and businesses need to make sure that it is a change for the better with AI rather than an instrument to restrict employee freedoms.
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*This is not legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.
