Artificial intelligence is taking over dreary grunt work that young workers often did to gain experience and advance their careers. That means that first-time jobs could be less boring, but it also means young workers need to find other ways to highlight their skills, experts say.GETTY IMAGES
Artificial intelligence has only become a top-of-mind issue in the past few years. But Reuben Rothstein encountered the technology back in 2019, shortly after he started his career as an associate lawyer in the litigation department of the Toronto firm McMillan LLP.
Litigation involves reviewing thousands of records for their relevance to a case – a task that traditionally fell to junior lawyers.
But in his first year, the firm began using AI software to take care of most of the document-sorting process.
“It freed me up to do much more interesting, substantive work: Analysis, strategy, case theory,” Mr. Rothstein, now a partner with the same firm and a member of the Toronto Lawyers’ Association new lawyers committee.
AI saved Mr. Rothstein months of dreary grunt work. But dreary grunt work was the way many generations young workers across industries got their start. As AI increasingly automates those simple tasks, what will that mean for people starting their careers now?
AI can improve dreary entry-level roles
Jodi Kovitz, CEO of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), says concerns about AI eliminating junior-level roles are real, but AI can also help make entry roles more rewarding and enriching. “I think there’s a huge opportunity if we can learn to partner with AI responsibly, ethically, and productively,” she says.
“The assumption is that AI takes [away] entry-level jobs, right? But that’s only partly true, because I think it’s more reshaping tasks, not removing the need for human learning and capabilities,” says Kadine Cooper, also known as Coach K, a career and life transformation coach who provides advice to both job seekers and businesses.
AI also means the type of skills that new hires learned with traditional starting roles won’t be as important as they used to, says Steph Barlow, chief executive and founder of Octopus HR, a Vancouver consulting firm.
“Instead of ‘you are going to do all of these menial tasks,’ it’s ‘hey, we want to see how you’re going to leverage the technology that is available to you to maybe automate or speed up whatever tasks so you can focus on other things,’ “ she explains.
In fact, Ms. Barlow says, AI could help make sure the next generation of workers learn the skills they need to perform more quickly and efficiently.
AI can also assist with training. She says some of her clients are trying out AI tools that help new salespeople practice making cold calls and dealing with the many rejections that are an inevitable part of a role in sales.
Companies are excited about individuals being able to do more self-directed learning through AI, Ms. Barlow says, “Because the reality is it’s definitely difficult for companies to be able to dedicate the amount of time they want to training.”
But if completing more mundane tasks was how young people used to show their employers the had the ability and work ethic to potentially get promoted someday, what do today’s generation of new workers need to do to showcase themselves and move up in today’s AI-assisted workplace?
Get ahead by embracing AI
With AI doing a lot of tasks, being able to demonstrate you know how to use AI tools well will help you stand out, says Ms. Kovitz.
“I don’t mean just partnering with one or two [AI] products: Really understanding how to use it, how to prompt it, developing a whole basket of skills around leveraging AI to do a variety of things,” she says.
New employees should embrace a spirit of experimentation and initiative with AI, says Ms. Barlow. “The [employees] we’re actually seeing succeed now are the ones who are able to look at their organization or their team and say ‘Okay, these are the [AI tools] that are out there right now. How can I use them to solve a problem in the organization to make us all more effective?’”
But don’t embrace AI too much
While Mr. Rothstein found AI a huge help during his early days at his law firm, he cautions new employees should be careful about when they choose to use AI to complete tasks.
For example, he says while it would be very attractive to young lawyers to rely on AI for legal research, it would be a mistake.
“That’s one area where I would say a junior lawyer would really miss out on developing their research skills and learning the law by skipping the step of doing it themselves,” he says. “I also find the quality of the answers that AI gives you for legal research are just not as good as what a person could do right now.”
Leverage uniquely human skills
“AI is a great tool. But it is still going to require some human interaction,” says Ms. Cooper.
Ms. Kovitz cites this year’s World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report that found soft skills such as adaptability, curiosity, creativity, strategic thinking and communication have grown substantially more important to corporate leaders in recent years. “That whole basket of skills will matter so much more as AI becomes increasingly proficient at routine work,” she says.
Ms. Barlow suggests thinking about your own personal strengths and how they complement AI tools. “So not necessarily replacing AI but taking time to understand where the limits are and where we need human intervention.”
Getting noticed by other humans in your workplace is also extremely valuable, Ms. Cooper says.
“Establishing a personal brand in the early days of your onboarding, and building internal networks – that’s what’s really going to set individuals apart now,” she says.
Get a mentor or a coach
Ms. Kovitz says mentors can help you learn valuable workplace skills that AI can’t teach you. “How do you persuade? How do you tell stories? How do you politically navigate work environments?” she says.
In fact, Ms. Kovitz says, it will probably be more important than ever for seasoned leaders to step up and mentor inexperienced employees so that those human skills that used to be taught through human interaction won’t be lost if AI takes on a bigger role in training.
Ms. Cooper says you can often find people in your workplace or industry who are happy to guide new employees. “I’ve mentored many people because I believe in them, and I want to see them succeed,” she says.
Lastly, don’t panic
Mr. Rothstein, who benefitted from AI early in his career, says he’s not concerned that the young people in his industry are going to be replaced by AI tools.
“They’re going to help us concentrate on the things that we need to spend more time on,” he says. “I don’t have a ton of confidence that AI, as it currently stands, is going to replace the tasks I do.”