Artificial intelligence and the future of work

At this week's event “AI and the Future of Work – Job Security, Meaning, Participation” at the Evangelische Akademie in Frankfurt, I had the privilege of giving the opening lecture entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work.”

In my keynote speech, I began by putting the current dynamics of AI development into context. The systems are rapidly becoming more powerful and are already surpassing human capabilities in certain areas of application. At the same time, their use in companies is increasing significantly: more and more organizations are integrating AI into their processes, and its use in the workplace is growing noticeably.

This reveals a nuanced picture of the effects. At the individual level, AI is increasing employee productivity, in some cases significantly. At the company level, however, these efficiency gains have not yet been reflected across the board in measurable productivity increases. In addition, there are increasing indications of ambivalent effects, such as quality risks or technostress.

At the same time, the increasing use of AI is having a substantial impact on the labor market. Existing job profiles will change fundamentally in some cases, tasks will be redesigned, and requirements will be redefined. It will therefore be crucial to systematically build new skills – from a sound understanding of AI systems and data-based decision-making abilities to critical reflection and control skills in dealing with algorithmic results.