AI at work is a stressful topic. Some love it, whereas others get goosebumps thinking AI will replace them... And we can see the statistics. It’s estimated that AI will replace 85 million jobs by 2025. Companies like Klarna or JP Morgan have already claimed that Artificial Intelligence can do the work of hundreds of employees. It’s also interesting to see the latest developments of Devin, the first AI software engineer who will most likely put numerous junior and mid-engineering roles at risk…Now, I wouldn’t be myself if I hadn’t said this ONCE AGAIN: Nowadays, work is becoming a placeless concept. Sitting in an office building for hours just to get free oranges or bananas thanks to a company’s shallow “well-being” approach should belong to the Stone Age. These days, I believe that everything that counts most in the business world are human intelligence, technology, work quality, effectiveness, and of course, mental health.

The use of AI at work

People can use AI and people can use AI… You can see at first glance that someone clearly has no idea what they’re doing by trying to copy-paste generic ChatGPT responses into their daily work. Oh, I’ve seen numerous emails that smelled like low-value AI content. And every time this happens, I keep asking myself, “Why would someone even do something like this?”. If someone’s day-to-day work is of such low quality that they can use free AI versions to replace themselves, they definitely shouldn’t be surprised once they get that layoff email from their manager…At the same time, I’ve seen mind-blowing examples of individuals who use AI to leverage the quality of their daily tasks. For example, automate generic processes, manage calendars to improve focus time, or calculate complex mathematical formulas at the speed of sound. So, this group of people understands the current competitive advantage of the human brain vs. artificial intelligence.

You must know one thing – at this stage, generative AI only knows what we’ve fed it.

The difference between the human brain and AI

I did it. I wanted to get information from the source, so I asked AI to tell me how the human brain differentiates from it. Here’s what it told me:

• The human brain is exceptionally good at understanding context, making leaps in logic, and applying emotional intelligence. While AI can adapt to new data, its ability to generalize from one context to another without explicit retraining is limited.
• Humans excel at creative thinking and innovation, capable of generating ideas, art, and solutions that are entirely new and often influenced by a wide range of experiences, emotions, and subjective insights. AI's creativity is derived from what it has been trained on.
• Emotional intelligence is a profound aspect of human intelligence. AI can’t experience emotions and truly understand or empathize with human feelings.
• Humans are highly adept at a capability known as transfer learning. AI generally remains much more limited in its ability to apply knowledge from one domain to another.
• The human brain can make complex decisions that consider ethics, morality, and future implications. AI lacks consciousness and self-awareness.
• The human brain is remarkably energy-efficient. Current AI systems can consume a large amount of energy to perform complex tasks.

In other words, the goal for us, human beings, is to unlock the power of creativity, emotion, and complex thinking with our human brains, and pair it with the precision of computer intelligence. This is how we can do amazing things and improve many areas of our work.

AI and the need to upskill and reskill

Have you heard about the concept of lifelong learning? Well, you definitely should have… Lifelong learning is the continuous, willing, and self-driven quest for knowledge. It not only helps you do better in your job and stay ahead in your career but also encourages you to be more involved in your community, take part in society, and work on making yourself a better person. So in other words – if you don’t embrace lifelong learning, your work future may indeed be at risk.If you don’t want to be surprised when it’s already too late, I strongly encourage you to learn more about the basics of AI and machine learning. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? Then, try to apply this knowledge in your day-to-day tasks or projects - one step at a time. Maybe there’s a certain workflow that you can automate or maybe AI can help you solve a complex problem faster? Think about it. How can you optimize your team and make the best use of your human intelligence?By following a planned learning journey and looking for chances to use your AI skills in real situations, you can successfully improve and even gain new knowledge in artificial intelligence. This will set you up for success in a field that's going to play a big role in shaping the future of work and technology. Are you ready to take on the challenge?