Author, keynote speaker and futurist John Sanei looks at how AI could create seismic change in 2024
John Sanei
In 2024 there are some big questions we need to be asking ourselves, starting with ‘Is my job safe?’ and ‘Is my business safe?’ With AI and emerging technologies coming to the world so quickly, we have to realise that many industries are going to be affected. Many are going to become commoditised and de-monetised, while others are going to boom. And we should all be aiming to ensure that if our business becomes commoditised, we can jump sectors or reskill ourselves to keep adding value.
So let’s start with the sectors that have already been affected and that aren’t making money in the way they used to:
- Music: CDs are no more and music is available for free with download platforms.
- Photos: you don’t make money on printing photos anymore like you could in the past.
- Communication: You can call or video call for nothing!
- Entertainment: We are going to see, for the very first time this year, the first-ever 90-minute feature film made completely by AI via voice prompts or text prompts.
So all of the above are already gone.
Now what’s going? Below are the sectors that are starting to become affected by the influx of AI and will continue to be so:
- Admin/back office: one of our very rudimentary, logical process-driven sectors, will soon be replaced by technology.
- Finance: If you are in the finance world, slowly but surely, algorithms are taking over and making better decisions about stock trade and about making more efficiencies around accounting. When you have blockchain coming in, all of it is going to be transparent.
- Media: the way we create it, and consume it is already started to be affected and we can see this in the way that advertising agencies and media companies are shrinking. So the creation of media will become almost zero, and the media that we see will be created by AI.
- Healthcare: What we have coming in the future are free preventative healthcare processes that will track our health and highlight issues before we even need to go to the hospital. So preventative health is going to be demonetising hospitals because hospitals are there for sick people. In the future, technology will stop you from getting sick.
- Education: We have so much super-smart AI coming in education that will all be free.
- Transportation: We can see this already with driverless cars and green energy. And this will continue to move in that direction.
- Power generation: there are so many tech start-ups trying to figure out fusion, nuclear, solar, wind power and the future will continue to bring this.
- Creatives and writers: If you think about things such as the Hollywood strikes, the reason why these industries are so worried is because AI will be replacing what they do.
- Blue collar work: TESLA just launched the latest version of thei robot and it has super sensitive hands, it’s almost more agile and more sensitive as a human. And this means that blue-collar work will start to be replaced.
So all of these are starting to be affected and they will be even more so in the future. They are all at different stages, but for example, you could have a new app launched tomorrow, and it could impact any of these industries at any stage. As the future arrives, it is unevenly distributed, so we always have these pockets where a lot is happening.
So that’s enough of the negatives. It’s also important for us to think about the industries that are going to boom and how we can be involved with these:
- Building homes: Everyone still needs somewhere to live! So, if you’re a builder, you’re still going to be building more.
- Farming: Everyone still needs to eat farmed products.
- Farmland and owning land: That’s not going anywhere; we still need land.
- Timber production: Growing trees, cutting them down, and building from them will still be needed. UNLESS AI starts to create a new material that will stop us from having to grow trees and use them for wood.
- Hospitality and experience economy: human experiences aren’t going anywhere. Hotel brands are growing, airlines are growing, and people are still travelling.
- Raw material mining: we are not going to stop needing steel, copper, etc.
- Semiconductor production: This is a very small niche, but semiconductors will be vital to our future, so the production of these is going to go through the roof.
- Robotics and automation: in other words, making the robots and making the robots that make the robots.
- Sustainable technology: anything to do with sustainability and technology – whether it’s agricultural, or solar – all of these are going to be growing exponentially.
So, in order to tackle any one of these problems, complexity is the enemy of execution. And if you’re business is trying to get the same people to think about disruption and innovation, getting ready for tomorrow and keeping the lights on for today, you’re in big trouble! No one person can do this, you need multiple teams to do this. You need an internal today team, an external today team, an internal tomorrow team and an external tomorrow team. Four quadrants are required that need to be broken down into teams where people are specifically focused on these.
Remember, certain industries are gone, certain industries are going and certain industries are going to be booming, so keep your eye on the ball and make sure you’re watching the media and the markets very well because you are going to start seeing some huge opportunities as well as some huge businesses closing.
Top tips for navigating the future:
Firstly, you need to understand that these changes are happening, and there is no escaping it. Secondly, start to figure out what else you can learn and what other sectors you can start going into. Start educating yourself on other sectors. Be curious and fascinated with what’s next and be constantly researching and exploring new things, otherwise, you are not going to be relevant in the future.
