Investing is risky this year, and according to gov.uk figures, while 753,168 new startups were founded in the UK between March 2021 and March 2022, only 4.3% are showing high growth. and the average five-year survival rate of UK startups is 42.4%.
Workers have other woes to contend with, with a survey from LumApps finding that a third of UK workers say they regularly suffer from burnout.
Eighty eight percent of employees have experienced burnout in the last two years, and 31% of British employees have suffered from “physical and mental exhaustion” due to workplace pressures.
AI fears
Now, workers are suffering from “AI anxiety”. It’s a term coined by marketing agency Day One, which the company says is “unease about the overarching ramifications of AI on human creativity and ingenuity”, along with “the sense of foreboding as to whether or not what you’re seeing is being created by man or machine.”
One of the biggest fears workers have is around their job security. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 found that 23% of jobs globally will change in the next five years.
While it expects 69 million new jobs to be created, 83 million will be eliminated, which will result in a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or 2% of current employment.
Other jobs will change radically. According to a report from McKinsey, generative AI has the potential to automate between 60% to 70% of the work that most of us engage in every day, particularly with regards to the work done by those working within sales and marketing, customer service, software engineering, and research and development.
30% time saving
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Another McKinsey report found that jobs across multiple sectors could benefit from getting up to 30% of their time back thanks to use of generative AI, and it can enhance the way STEM, creative, and business and legal professionals work rather than eliminating jobs.
Other roles that may be impacted positively are computer engineers, business and financial specialists, and account managers, with one study finding that software developers using Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot completed tasks 56% faster than those not using the tool.
Microsoft’s most recent Work Trend Index Annual Report, agrees that AI looks set to help workers in their jobs, and not replace them.
“This new generation of AI will remove the drudgery of work and unleash creativity,” says Satya Nadella, Microsoft chairman and CEO, who added that “There’s an enormous opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt, build AI aptitude, and empower employees.”
A huge 82% of leaders say employees need new skills to take advantage of AI. These include critical thinking and analytical judgement skills, as well complex problem solving abilities. Creativity and originality––something AI currently sorely lacks––will be new core competencies.
Already, there are 33 times as many job postings mentioning topics like generative AI and GPT than there were one year ago, so the time to develop these capabilities is now.
If you’d like to move to a company where you can develop new skills, the Maddyness Job Board has plenty of exciting opportunities. Discover three below.
GoCardless has an opportunity Systems Analyst in London who will take on responsibility for some of the business-critical platforms the company relies on in Operations. The primary focus for this role will be owning, configuring and building improvements in our new billing system, Billing Platform. You’ll become a deep expert in our finance processes and the tools that underpin them, and be the go-to person for our operational and finance teams.
At PwC, a Financial Crime – Technology Director role is on offer. Based in London, you’ll work on a range of client engagement with UK and multinational financial services clients, including current state assessment, implementing and optimising financial crime technology solutions and the associated alert handling processes, assessing and enhancing organisations’ current and target operating models for financial crime technology and reviewing end-to-end data flow (data quality, data lineage), analysis ETL technologies and discovering key data elements.
Or check out this CSD Cyber Security Senior Manager job at EY in Newcastle upon Tyne. Here, you will support clients across a range of cyber issues and challenges, and enable clients to better manage the broad range of risks in their increasingly complex IT ecosystems. In addition, you will play a key role in supporting the development of new business opportunities.
For more opportunities in cybersecurity, visit the Maddyness Job Board today