The people most likely to be supplanted by generative AI have become its biggest boosters. Or at least that’s one way to read data from Microsoft’s 2024 Annual Work Trend Index.
In the past six months, non-technical professionals have increased their use of LinkedIn Learning courses designed to build AI aptitude by 160%, the report said. And the occupations most likely to have added AI skills like ChatGPT and Copilot to their LinkedIn profiles are in creative positions.
Some 33% of content writers who added skills to their profiles last year included AI, while 27% of graphic designers did so, according to the Microsoft report.
“Content writers are very interested in AI as a core new tool they need to know about, and are eager to showcase to potential employers that they are bringing that knowledge to their work,” LinkedIn Workforce Expert Aneesh Raman told Sherwood.
Perhaps it’s also because generative AI tools have proved to be scarily good at generating creative text and images, formerly the province of those very humans.
A study last year by the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT found that half of workers could have over 50% of their tasks exposed to large language models, like ChatGPT. Exposure was highest among some notably creative positions like designers and journalists. It didn’t say those jobs would necessarily be replaced by gen AI tools, but they would be altered.
Ritik Dholakia, managing partner of design firm Studio Rodrigo, which employs a number of graphic designers, said they’ve used a number of gen AI tools like OpenAI, Midjourney, and Dall-E to spark ideas and save time.
“These fields are seeing these emerging tools as anywhere from being a new fundamental toolkit we have to master to an existential threat to people's jobs,” Dholakia said. “I think there's a higher level of adoption, in that people need to become familiar with these tools because they don't know what their jobs are going to look like in three years, five years, seven years.”
Pete Pachal, a former journalist and founder of The Media Copilot, a newsletter and consultancy on how to use AI for content creation, sees creatives types familiarizing themselves with gen AI as a self-preservation mechanism.
“A lot of these softer-skilled professions, whether you're a copy editor or a copywriter, the way gen AI emerged it suddenly became very clear to everyone, ‘Oh, a lot of that work can now essentially be taken over by machines.”’
While he said that expectation has lost steam as gen AI’s limitations have become more clear, creative professionals now understand that they’ll at least have to work with these tools.
“People are realizing it's still here and it's going to be have a big impact,” Pachal said. “But I need to understand it and upskill myself, so that I can essentially stay relevant.”
The Microsoft report found that three-quarters of knowledge workers are using AI at work, often without their bosses’ express permission.
The vast majority said it helps them save time and keep up with the volume of work, allowing them to focus on what they consider their most important work.
