A very interesting article. Regarding university: is the current European framework (four years of undergraduate studies plus a master's degree) sufficient, or will this challenge require longer educational careers? In short, are the professional and educational cycles being stretched at the same time as the biological one?
I am not sure a bachelor degree in business can be shortened much. If, as the post here argues, a newly hired employee is to have relevant meta-cognitive abilities, they need to have basic insights into all relevant features of the economy: Econ 1.01, strategy, methods, logistics etc. In other words, I don't think a firm is interested in hiring someone who doesn't know anything but can just click some buttons - again, that to me seems to be the point of the post here. Is the argument that certain topics can be eliminated, or just that students can learn it faster with chatbots?
A bachelor degree in business is already pretty worthless, at least in the US. The better schools don’t offer it as an undergrad degree any more. Maybe it’s different in Europe for some reason?
The top “business” jobs like management consulting or investment banking don’t require any particular undergraduate major, they prefer to hire people who are generally intelligent than who have any particular education. I think in the future more jobs will work like this; the value of learning specific information will decline because AI can handle that.
AI is also changing the value of training itself. Fundamentally, some skills can be trained and some cannot. When a skill can be clearly defined and clearly evaluated, it’s much easier to train that skill. But this is also the sort of skill that AI is the best at replacing.
If the AI can get an A in a class, what useful skill is a human learning when they get an A in that class? For some classes, the answer will be “nothing”. That skill just won’t have value any more. Like learning to use a card catalog to find books.
Great post. One comment: "Allen & Overy’s innovation head noted it will be “a serious competitive disadvantage” for firms not to adopt such AI. " this is from a February 2023 article, and hence not the most illustrative quote?
I wonder if the integrated work of trainees with the AI could provide greater product value to their company while also allowing for the professionalization of trainees.
The proposal could be as follows. Trainees would operate within a pyramidal structure, with increasing responsibilities based on their seniority (1, 2, 3 years). Each trainee, individually or in small groups, would work with "his-their" AI on the project assigned to him-them by their manager, a partner in the company. The hierarchically structured group of trainees would discuss in a forum the proposals they developed using their knowledge, perspectives, and the responses of "his-their" different AIs. The forum would filter one or more proposals to the project's lead partner, integrating the AIs' results and the trainees group's critical judgment. The company's lead partner would return his feedback to the trainees forum after adopting the official company's proposal.
In short, it would involve replacing PowerPoint with AI so that, with the structured expertise of all trainees, the company could incorporate the added value of AI with the growing criticism and expertise of the trainee group.
I have also heard firms saying they particularly higher graduates now because they are "AI native" and quicker to embrace AI - and become productive using it. Would your argument not also support a strategy where a consultancy would do what they have always done in a shorter period of time - i.e. complementing mid-career consultants into CEO posts at future clients and then hoping that these new CEOs know they don't understand AI but their former employer has all these smart AI natives on their payroll?
A very interesting article. Regarding university: is the current European framework (four years of undergraduate studies plus a master's degree) sufficient, or will this challenge require longer educational careers? In short, are the professional and educational cycles being stretched at the same time as the biological one?
I think it’s the opposite, degrees will become less valuable, because AIs are very good at replicating the sort of skills you get with a degree.
I am not sure a bachelor degree in business can be shortened much. If, as the post here argues, a newly hired employee is to have relevant meta-cognitive abilities, they need to have basic insights into all relevant features of the economy: Econ 1.01, strategy, methods, logistics etc. In other words, I don't think a firm is interested in hiring someone who doesn't know anything but can just click some buttons - again, that to me seems to be the point of the post here. Is the argument that certain topics can be eliminated, or just that students can learn it faster with chatbots?
A bachelor degree in business is already pretty worthless, at least in the US. The better schools don’t offer it as an undergrad degree any more. Maybe it’s different in Europe for some reason?
The top “business” jobs like management consulting or investment banking don’t require any particular undergraduate major, they prefer to hire people who are generally intelligent than who have any particular education. I think in the future more jobs will work like this; the value of learning specific information will decline because AI can handle that.
AI is also changing the value of training itself. Fundamentally, some skills can be trained and some cannot. When a skill can be clearly defined and clearly evaluated, it’s much easier to train that skill. But this is also the sort of skill that AI is the best at replacing.
If the AI can get an A in a class, what useful skill is a human learning when they get an A in that class? For some classes, the answer will be “nothing”. That skill just won’t have value any more. Like learning to use a card catalog to find books.
Great post. One comment: "Allen & Overy’s innovation head noted it will be “a serious competitive disadvantage” for firms not to adopt such AI. " this is from a February 2023 article, and hence not the most illustrative quote?
I wonder if the integrated work of trainees with the AI could provide greater product value to their company while also allowing for the professionalization of trainees.
The proposal could be as follows. Trainees would operate within a pyramidal structure, with increasing responsibilities based on their seniority (1, 2, 3 years). Each trainee, individually or in small groups, would work with "his-their" AI on the project assigned to him-them by their manager, a partner in the company. The hierarchically structured group of trainees would discuss in a forum the proposals they developed using their knowledge, perspectives, and the responses of "his-their" different AIs. The forum would filter one or more proposals to the project's lead partner, integrating the AIs' results and the trainees group's critical judgment. The company's lead partner would return his feedback to the trainees forum after adopting the official company's proposal.
In short, it would involve replacing PowerPoint with AI so that, with the structured expertise of all trainees, the company could incorporate the added value of AI with the growing criticism and expertise of the trainee group.
Thanks Antonio, this is a pragmatic response. I wonder if any partner on a consulting firm will think about it/act on it.
I have also heard firms saying they particularly higher graduates now because they are "AI native" and quicker to embrace AI - and become productive using it. Would your argument not also support a strategy where a consultancy would do what they have always done in a shorter period of time - i.e. complementing mid-career consultants into CEO posts at future clients and then hoping that these new CEOs know they don't understand AI but their former employer has all these smart AI natives on their payroll?
At least for now, it appears that AI is not reducing entry-level graduate jobs. https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/stop-pretending-you-know-what-ai