Opinion: AI’s ability to replace jobs shouldn’t be flaunted

AI is here to stay, for better or for worse.

In the business world, the exponential use of artificial intelligence has sparked both hopes of unprecedented productivity — and fears of job loss.

According to a recent survey  by EY, more than two in three employees in Europe are worried that AI will eliminate jobs.

Blunt announcements by prominent European tech companies are doing nothing to help alleviate these concerns.

One of those companies is Sweden’s Klarna. The buy-now-pay-later unicorn aims to cut almost half of its workforce thanks to AI.

In the company’s second quarter results on Tuesday, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski hailed AI’s impact in enabling “lower costs,” as Klarna managed to reduce its net loss from a year earlier.

Siemiatkowksi told the Financial Times that Klarna could further shrink its workforce with artificial intelligence taking on tasks in marketing and customer service. This translates to about 1,800 fewer employees.

“Not only can we do more with less, but we can do much more with less,” he said.

The fintech unicorn implemented an AI-related hiring freeze already in December 2023. A few months later, it stated that its AI chatbot could do the work of 700 human customer service agents.

The fact that AI can fully automate and undertake tasks, while increasing efficiency is (again, for better or for worse) indisputable. But flaunting job displacement isn’t the way to go.

The ethical argument against it is (or at least, it should be) clear: we’re talking about people and their livelihoods.

The focus should also be not on faceless replacement, but on leveraging AI as a force for good in the labour market.

The potential exists, according to experts. And this potential for good is about augmenting jobs, preparing the workforce, and even addressing labour shortages in under-resourced professions.

But to enable a mutually beneficial human/AI collaboration like that, one requirement is rebuilding employee skills.

“It’s imperative to invest in training, reskilling, and early AI education,” Jaeger Glucina, Chief of Staff at London-based legal AI company Luminance, told TNW in a previous interview.

This is key to ensuring that “both the current and future workforce are adept at navigating this emerging digital landscape.”

Another requirement is lessening instead of deepening job replacement fears.

The message that AI can usher businesses into a new era is valid — but the way this message is delivered matters. CEOs would do well to remember that.