Will IT jobs be replaced or automated?
I have heard that after the IT companies are going to shut down and it will be automated. Is that true?
This was the original question I responded to on Quora?
Your question is a bit vague.
One of the goals of IT professionals is to automate more heavily in order to make things more efficient and reduce our workload.
There are some aspects of IT that can be automated, but for certain things it still takes a human being.
We script repetitive tasks. We automate backups so we don’t have to do them manual. We automate updates and maintenance as much as possible.
But for some things, there is no substitute for a human being. Especially when you get more complicated problems in the IT infrastructure. Problems with the underlying code of the software or how that code interacts with the network can not be solved by the systems who are required to operate within the code.
For example, say your software edits pictures, but each time the software hits a certain combination of colors in a picture like 4 colors that translate to aa0038#bb11 (I’m just making this up at this point for an example this isn’t actual code.) But that # isn’t supposed to be there and causes a crash. Some part of your code is compiling the information into a “#” when it should be a 5 meaning the actual colors should read as aa00385bb11. The computer can’t figure it out because it just knows that it tried to process a piece of code and failed because it wasn’t right. It doesn’t know WHY it wasn’t right just that it couldn't process it.
This is what IT troubleshooters do. This is what keeps us employed. This is why our jobs are safe until we have True AI.
Now some companies are using current “AI” which are really just advanced scripts and machine learning to help create basic Q&A problem solving on websites. For example: Why is my internet so slow? This can prompt an automated response to ask a couple of questions and walk through basic guided troubleshooting. Often, people will not realize they are evening interacting with a computer and not a real person.
Now let me answer your question another way.
OMG This company is getting shut down, whatever will I do?
This is probably not as big a concern as you think. If a company is shutting down, they were either bought or are competing in a market where someone else did it better, cheaper, or faster. You will have alternatives and likely the product or service you have can be replaced by another companies product or service. Such is the nature of the world we live in. Products come and go, new ideas become old, products get outdated and become irrelevant.
In the world of information technology this happens a lot faster than other industries.
One final alternative answer:
Yes. Chances are we will all be replaced by AI at some point in the future but I suspect we have at least a few hundred years before our computers can become self aware.
Thank you for reading.
Have a question or comment? Please ask or leave feedback below. I'm here to help you.
Please follow and share this blog for more posts like this.
One of the goals of IT professionals is to automate more heavily in order to make things more efficient and reduce our workload.
There are some aspects of IT that can be automated, but for certain things it still takes a human being.
We script repetitive tasks. We automate backups so we don’t have to do them manual. We automate updates and maintenance as much as possible.
But for some things, there is no substitute for a human being. Especially when you get more complicated problems in the IT infrastructure. Problems with the underlying code of the software or how that code interacts with the network can not be solved by the systems who are required to operate within the code.
For example, say your software edits pictures, but each time the software hits a certain combination of colors in a picture like 4 colors that translate to aa0038#bb11 (I’m just making this up at this point for an example this isn’t actual code.) But that # isn’t supposed to be there and causes a crash. Some part of your code is compiling the information into a “#” when it should be a 5 meaning the actual colors should read as aa00385bb11. The computer can’t figure it out because it just knows that it tried to process a piece of code and failed because it wasn’t right. It doesn’t know WHY it wasn’t right just that it couldn't process it.
This is what IT troubleshooters do. This is what keeps us employed. This is why our jobs are safe until we have True AI.
Now some companies are using current “AI” which are really just advanced scripts and machine learning to help create basic Q&A problem solving on websites. For example: Why is my internet so slow? This can prompt an automated response to ask a couple of questions and walk through basic guided troubleshooting. Often, people will not realize they are evening interacting with a computer and not a real person.
Now let me answer your question another way.
OMG This company is getting shut down, whatever will I do?
This is probably not as big a concern as you think. If a company is shutting down, they were either bought or are competing in a market where someone else did it better, cheaper, or faster. You will have alternatives and likely the product or service you have can be replaced by another companies product or service. Such is the nature of the world we live in. Products come and go, new ideas become old, products get outdated and become irrelevant.
In the world of information technology this happens a lot faster than other industries.
One final alternative answer:
Yes. Chances are we will all be replaced by AI at some point in the future but I suspect we have at least a few hundred years before our computers can become self aware.
Thank you for reading.
Have a question or comment? Please ask or leave feedback below. I'm here to help you.
Please follow and share this blog for more posts like this.
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