Smart Emmanuel: How Can We Tackle Problems AI Cannot Solve?

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to spread, many people wonder if it will make their jobs or businesses irrelevant. The truth is that many jobs and skills will be automated by AI. It’s now possible to write well-structured proposals or briefs using AI tools. Anyone can also build a basic website within minutes using AI applications. What was an edge a year or two ago isn’t anymore because anyone with access to an AI tool can design, write, or create decent outcomes. This affects all industries, from photography to design and even research. AI tools are discovering elements scientists never knew existed at a pace impossible for humans to match. It’s also affecting medicine, customer service, accounting, and many other fields.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. While we might dislike its impact on jobs and businesses, we enjoy utilising its benefits. Numbers don’t lie, and the rapid signup rate for chatGPT tells the story of its high adoption. However, this isn’t the first time humanity has faced such disruption. The internet threatened information access, and many products became obsolete due to the telephone and, later, the smartphone. Computers disrupted many businesses and jobs. These inventions created new opportunities, but this article isn’t about those; it’s about the people who might not benefit from these new roles and won’t jump on the AI bandwagon to create AI businesses.

As a skilled person or business owner, jumping on the latest trend isn’t always in your best interest. You might lose yourself and your essence. Instead of abandoning your field because of AI, look for windows of opportunity within it. What problems can’t AI solve, and how can you solve them excellently? This can only be found by identifying strong pain points in your industry that companies or customers crave a solution to and are willing to pay for. This means sitting down with decision-makers and customers to learn about their pain points through open discussions about their needs, wants, and aspirations. People want to talk; we just need to ask the right questions and listen.

Trying to sell someone a skill they don’t need or a product they don’t want is counterproductive. We truly can’t provide what customers want unless we listen to them. For example, your current customers might not need your website design skills as much anymore, but they have other needs. Artificial Intelligence hasn’t solved all human problems, so it’s important to look for new problems and opportunities within your industry. Remember, not all organisations will trust their processes to AI tools because they want a human touch. The fast adaptation of AI is a call for all of us to solve problems it hasn’t and seek opportunities it hasn’t extinguished. You’ll be surprised at the opportunities and problems you never noticed in your field until you started looking for them.

These new opportunities and problems hold the potential for new jobs and businesses. We will use Artificial Intelligence to improve our work, but the human race will be here even longer. Artificial Intelligence is our tool, not our master. We will always survive and thrive as new technologies emerge. Like those before us, we will answer the call to solve problems that Artificial Intelligence hasn’t solved, and become highly skilled and well-paid in these new areas.

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