Artificial Intelligence and Career Development

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Aaron Engel, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Artificial Intelligence and Career Development; Friend or Foe?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is simply defined as intelligence exhibited by machines (Wikipedia, n.d.). A key component is an ability for machines to learn on their own and make modifications that extend their abilities beyond what they were programmed to do (Wikipedia, n.d.). Examples of AI include understanding human speech, driving vehicles, and playing competitive games such as chess (Wikipedia, n.d.). The late world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking warned that AI has the potential to destroy human civilization and could become the worst invention in the history of humankind (Osborn, 2017). Hawking also believes AI has the potential to do extraordinary things such as ending poverty (Osborn, 2017). The future is unknown, but AI appears here to stay and has the potential to change the course of career development.

How is Artificial Intelligence Already Used in Career Development Today?
The following are just a couple of examples of many ways in which AI is already being used today to assist in the career development process.

• There is an AI technology called “DeepSense” that pulls information from social media profiles and makes predictions as to the candidate suitability for the job (Farokhmanesh, 2019). Information in social media is matched to characteristics found to contribute to successful job performance (Farokhmanesh, 2019).
• Many companies use technology to screen resumes for keywords or phrases and narrow down the list without physically looking at all submitted resumes.

What are the Possibilities for the Future?
The future is, of course, uncertain, so later capabilities are estimates based on personal understanding of technology and knowledge of what has already been created. While it is challenging to research the future, additional research on possibilities for AI in career development would be beneficial to help understand how those in career development can benefit from AI.

• AI may be able to pull information from multiple and more sources to make hiring recommendations
• AI assessments can be designed to measure candidates and track their performance, thus allowing machines to learn and make adaptations based on data
• AI tools could suggest resume enhancements based on job descriptions
• AI tools could aggregate data from multiple job databases and filter jobs based on candidate criteria
• AI could assist with forecasting future availability of jobs
• AI could conduct unlimited mock interviews and provide feedback
• Advanced AI could analyze vocal tone and body language
• AI could predict future earnings based on an analysis of past trends and knowledge of current development
Artificial Intelligence Strengths and Weaknesses for Career Development?

Strengths
• Can already beat humans at calculations and strategy games
• Unlimited unknown potential
• Members of a society may always be untrusting of technology
• Does not have human bias unless programmed into the technology (but will also have a bias based on programming)

Weaknesses
• Machines can have defects, and those defects can lead to harm
• The ethics of allowing machines to make decisions. Who is responsible? Who is accountable?

• The risk that machines could become malicious or be programmed to act in a harmful manner
• The need to closely monitor and control
• Soft skills – machines cannot feel, develop genuine relationships or empathize

Summary
Whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence has already started to impact the world (Wikipedia, n.d.). The prospects of machine ability to analyze data, conduct research quickly by pulling from multiple sources, and learn from experience provide promise for career development and many aspects of society (Farokhmanesh, M., 2019). Weaknesses in terms of AI lacking human soft-skills, ethical considerations, and the potential for harm also exist. Hopefully, Dr. Hawking’s predictions about how AI has the potential for transforming the world for good come true as opposed to the more pessimistic predictions that it could become our worst invention in history.

References
Artificial Intelligence (n.d.) Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

Farokhmanesh, M. (2019). The Next Frontier in Hiring is AI Driven. Retrieved from theverge.com/2019/1/30/18202335/ai-artificial-intelligence-recruiting-hiring-hr-bias-prejudice

Osborn, H., (2017, November). Stephan Hawking AI Warning: Artificial Intelligence Could Destroy Civilization. Retrieved from newsweek.com/stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-warning-destroy-civilization-703630