AI and jobs: people will be at the heart of making AI work | Computer Weekly
AI and jobs: people will be at the heart of making AI work | Computer Weekly
摘要: Andrey Popov - stock.adobe.com
AI and jobs: people will be at the heart of making AI work
AI may be eliminating some job roles but overall
正文
Andrey Popov - stock.adobe.com
AI and jobs: people will be at the heart of making AI work
AI may be eliminating some job roles but overall demand for human labour will increase amid signs of an 'AI boomerang'.
Jason Pyle, Managing Director, Harvey Nash USA & Canada
Published:
21 Aug 2026
It’s a subject that attracts endless debate:
will AI replace whole swathes of human jobs
and create an exodus from white collar professions?
The trigger for me writing some reflections on this question is that no other than Jeff Bezos weighed in on the topic recently when speaking at a conference in Paris. His view was that far from decimating human roles, AI would unlock new opportunities and increase demand for human labour.
I am in the Jeff Bezos camp. My belief is that just as other defining shifts like the creation of the internet created whole new classes of employment, so too will AI. That is not to say that it won’t redesign or remove some roles as the technology takes over certain tasks and processes itself –
but it will also spawn new human activities
.
As an example of how things are changing, take software development. Increasingly, and as is already happening, AI will write new code itself. But skilled human engineers are still needed to manage the process, and oversee and check the results. Crucially, their human skills and experience will continue to be essential in making sure that the products being developed meet the needs of customers and support the strategic priorities of the business. That human understanding of the wider picture is something that AI may never be able to replace.
An ‘AI boomerang’?
As in any transformation, there will be something of a rebalancing. Interestingly, we are already seeing signs of this in the market – back in the favour of human skills. Talk is growing of an ‘AI boomerang’ amongst some organisations who cut back on existing staff or new hiring due to AI, but who are now beginning to push the balance back