Panel Discussion: AI and the Future of Work

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Moderator: Let's turn to the question everyone's asking: will AI take our jobs? Dr. Okafor, you've studied previous waves of automation. Okafor: I have, and I'd caution against both panic and complacency. Historically, technology has destroyed specific tasks far more often than entire occupations. Bank tellers are the classic example: cash machines were supposed to eliminate them, yet teller numbers actually grew for years, because branches became cheaper to open. The job changed — less counting cash, more selling services. Moderator: Ms. Lindqvist, you run a translation company. Is that reassuring? Lindqvist: Up to a point. I'd love to share Dr. Okafor's optimism, but the historical analogy may flatter us. Cash machines automated one narrow task; these systems are general-purpose. In my own firm, the volume of routine translation we do has fallen sharply. What's grown is editing, cultural consulting and legal certification — but those jobs require years of experience, and I honestly don't know how the next generation will get that experience if the entry-level work disappears. Okafor: That's a fair challenge, and I don't want to dismiss it. The transition costs are real, and they fall unevenly. Moderator: Mr. Reyes, you advise governments on skills policy. What should they be doing? Reyes: Frankly, less predicting and more preparing. Every forecast I've seen in the last decade has been confidently wrong in one direction or another. What we can say is that the ability to learn quickly, to judge the quality of machine output, and to deal with people will matter more, not less. So I'd shift public money from one-off degree programs towards short, repeated training throughout people's careers. Lindqvist: I'd add that companies need to take some responsibility here. It's tempting to cut junior roles to save money this year, but if everyone does that, there'll be no senior experts in ten years. Reyes: Agreed, although I'm wary of relying on companies' goodwill. Incentives, such as tax credits for apprenticeships, tend to work better than appeals to conscience.