It’s time to give yourself a big, fat raise.
A new study found that employees with skills in artificial intelligence (AI) can earn salaries as much as 40% higher than peers without AI skills. But the real value, they found, was combining AI skills with a wide range of other skills. The secret to commanding higher salaries is something called “complementarity” — the ability to combine valuable non-AI skills with AI skills. The research was done at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Center for Social Data Science at the University of Copenhagen.
What does it all mean?
In ancient times (before 2022, when the large language model-based generative AI craze hit), we tended to think of AI as a discreet bundle of hyper-specialities. There were AI eggheads who did nothing but AI, and everyone else who never touched it, except as a user or consumer of a product that leveraged AI — no skill or knowledge required.
Now, the reverse is true. Professionals in many fields are using AI tools that require skills and knowledge about AI.
Last year, most professionals needed zero AI skills. This year, many pros are already acquiring those skills. And next year, nearly everyone will benefit from them.
The value of “complementarity” in some jobs is intuitive. Software engineers who excel at leveraging genAI tools are more valuable than those who don’t. But someone with genAI skills who lacks programming expertise won’t succeed at software development because letting AI write code that the user can’t understand doesn’t work. And someone who does programming but has no AI skills will struggle to keep up with an industry that’s using AI to accelerate and improve their work. The most hirable developer is one who combines programming and AI skills creatively and effectively.
I use the software engineer example because it’s intuitive and clearly true. The power of “complementarity” here is clear. Same goes for engineers, generally, and data scientists.
But I would argue that it’s also true for many other roles and industries that may seem less intuitive.
AI is becoming a necessary business skill
By AI skills, I don’t mean the ability to use ChatGPT to write your emails for you. Recruiters and business leaders are looking for people who have real knowledge and skill beyond prompt engineering — people who read publications like this, articles like this, and who take an interest in AI research articles and perhaps even do AI-related course work.
I’m a professional writer. That’s my speciality. But every ambitious person in the business world should (and most do) work on writing better. It’s a necessary skill that should be combined with the skillset of their specialty.
AI is now just like that. Ambitious people need to dig into AI and understand how it can help them do their jobs more effectively.
This is true of C-suite executives, as well. EdX surveyed 800 execs and 800 workers about the impact of AI on…
2023-11-06 02:41:03
Post from www.computerworld.com rnrn