Jobs are on minds

From where I’m sitting, I see opportunity. I see the economy, the workforce and our daily lives both slowly and quickly moving toward the bifurcation of “things machines can do” and “things that only humans can do,” and I’m excited about this because from my vantage point, automation creates the space to do other things — to take a physically exhausting job and instead enable that person to look at what’s happening at the macro level and improve the product and how it’s made — to be able to talk to their customers more and better understand their needs. The world that I see as very possible is one where humans are free to maximally use their creativity, appreciate and apply the nuance and diversity that comes with life, and maybe even have more time to connect with one another more deeply. That last bit we so desperately need. As an example, in 2022, our company shifted to a flexible schedule, four-day work week. We have not seen a decrease in productivity while growing the company year over year and AI has played a key role in enabling this to happen.

What I have been less exposed to was the very real anxiety that comes with the knowledge that you have spent your entire life perfecting a craft skill and it is at risk of completely going away. Julie Lind, executive officer/executive secretary treasurer for the San Mateo County Labor Council, has so generously invested her time in educating me on this over the past several years. I have worked many of these types of jobs in my lifetime, but have, over the years, shifted to a form of knowledge work that very much serves to benefit from artificial intelligence with productivity improvement. When I say “have the time to appreciate and apply the nuance and diversity that comes with life,” this is what I mean — it’s important. 

The questions to our panel were diverse and direct, and I’ve been thinking about many of them since Saturday. Because there is today and there is the promise of tomorrow. And in between those two points in time is a big messy space. Let’s be honest — as a society we are pretty terrible at managing change and especially with AI, this needs to be reckoned with. 

Ray Mueller, San Mateo County District 3 supervisor, who also spoke on the AI panel, made several excellent points that merit a broader audience and deeper — perhaps nudged — conversation with industry. He wrote the resolution earlier in 2024, which passed 5-0, to “ensure that the integration of AI technologies is conducted responsibly and in a way that mitigates job displacement.” 

I was initially skeptical of this kind of resolution because my personal belief was always that if I were to stay relevant in the workforce, I was responsible for staying ahead of the curve. However, while technological innovation driving job skills evolution has been happening since the dawn of the industrial age in the United States, artificial intelligence serves to so dramatically evolve how humans work and live at a velocity we have never seen before that it is in our best interest as a society to proactively smooth out that “big messy space” as much as we can for many reasons.  

In his comments, Supervisor Mueller offered a path forward that companies and civic leaders need to listen to, and that is phased automation. The approach phases the implementation of AI while still enabling its benefits to be realized. And when in conjunction with private and public investments in job retraining and new job creation, very clearly heads off spikes in unemployment. 

My hope is that after you read this column, you email it to your CEO and legislators. Keep talking about it. The investment that tech companies have announced in AI driven job re-skilling is necessary and good, but the impact will be much broader than tech — it will be everywhere and everyone needs to play their part. 

Annie Tsai is chief operating officer at Interact (tryinteract.com), early stage investor and advisor with The House Fund (thehouse.fund), and a member of the San Mateo County Housing and Community Development Committee. Find Annie on Twitter @meannie.