The digital therapist has advantages. Because the patient is less ashamed when he exposes his discomfort in front of an algorithm: he does not feel judged. Perceive the program as more neutral, nor will you have to interpret the examiner's body language. They call it "digital disinhibition". The same can be said with a digital tutor for students: they feel that the virtual assistant is not obsessed with them, while leaving time for the physical teacher to prepare the lessons.
These are some of the possibilities that artificial intelligence (AI) already allows today. A technology that raises dilemmas: will the human therapist continue to be necessary? How much should the academic be paid if the algorithm can do a training session for free?
These questions and many others were debated at the Gartner IT Symposium/XPO, a congress that gathers more than 8,000 executives in Barcelona this week. AI is already here (or will be there soon): according to the polls of this consultancy, 80% of the technology executives of the companies (CIOs) are already studying to fully adopt generative artificial intelligence in the next three years.
According to Gartner, the impact on the labor market in the short term (the next three years) would be rather neutral. It would be a zero-sum game, because some jobs will indeed be lost, but others of the same magnitude will be created. On the other hand, in the long term, the different artificial intelligence solutions will create on a global scale around 500 million new (human) jobs in the next ten years.
Then, "80% of humans will interact with intelligent machines every day". "We were wrong. We thought that this technology had no capacity to express and understand human empathy. Yes it can," says Mary Mesaglio, Vice President of Gartner. And he adds: "We are moving from 'what machines can do for us' to 'what machines can be for us'".
Mesaglio explains that there are two forms of AI. The one that is used every day, which roughly allows you to do the same thing, but more quickly and efficiently. When the use spreads and becomes massive, the competitive advantage for companies will gradually tend to decrease. Instead, the other is focused on creativity, creates new results, changes the rules of the game and opens up the possibility of creating new businesses.
Faced with these transformations, the labor market faces new challenges. Do the workers of the future have the necessary skills to adapt to this technological environment? Gabriela Vogel, senior analyst at Gartner, explained that it will be necessary to rethink the academic curriculum. "From now on, it may be possible to take advantage of talents that had previously been excluded. It may not be necessary to have a career in the traditional sense", he affirmed.
In a September study, consulting firm McKinsey was even more optimistic, estimating that AI will create about 700 million net jobs by 2030: “The main disruptions will take place in customer service, food service, office and manufacturing support. The workers in these categories will have to be updated and resettled". Or they will have to go to the (digital) therapist.
