As AI technology continues to advance, it presents businesses with an opportunity to automate routine tasks that usually require human cognitive skills. This shift allows employees to focus on more strategic, high-level initiatives. To stay competitive in the future, companies will need to understand and leverage AI effectively.
There’s no doubt that AI will impact the job market. Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are already making some jobs obsolete, but they’re also creating new ones in the process.
This pattern isn’t new. It mirrors earlier shifts in history, like when the first farmer used a plow and oxen to replace the labor of many field workers. Innovations such as robotics and process automation have similarly led to new jobs and entire industries, often outweighing the positions they replaced.
AI takes automation to a whole new level because it can perform cognitive tasks at human-like levels across various industries, including office work. This has sparked some concern that AI could eliminate more jobs than it creates, potentially redefining work in society. With many manual tasks taken over by machines, the question becomes: What should the human role in productivity and prosperity look like, and how should people be rewarded for it? It’s still unclear whether this transition will follow the same patterns as past technological shifts or if it will dramatically change society.
An Opportunity for Growth
The loss of jobs can be challenging, especially when entire job categories start to disappear. However, transitions like this also create new opportunities. The rise of AI-driven automation is a chance for growth, development, and the creation of new jobs in fields like computer science, networking, data management, sensors, and robotics.
AI excels at processing vast amounts of data quickly and learning from past experiences to handle new situations. This capability allows AI to manage complex, data-intensive systems and networks. As networking becomes increasingly critical to our economy—comparable to utilities like electricity and water—AI is becoming essential.
The challenge for most organizations lies in the cost of networking, both in capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx). Modern network systems require multiple layers, protocols, and interchanges to meet the needs of customers, partners, and employees. Traditionally, managing these systems has required a lot of hands-on work, often from highly skilled and well-paid professionals working around the clock.
AI offers the potential to simplify these systems and dramatically reduce costs by automating tasks that currently demand constant attention from network engineers.
Key Examples of AI’s Impact
Load Balancing
In modern IT environments, workloads can fluctuate rapidly, leading to issues with over- or under-provisioning of network resources. AI can monitor these fluctuations in real time, making adjustments to keep resource usage optimized and productivity high.
Security
With increasing threats to data infrastructure, including AI-driven attacks, using AI for cybersecurity offers a more effective response. AI can handle the vast amount of monitoring and analysis needed while identifying data patterns that may go unnoticed by humans, ensuring better protection of systems and data.
Design and Development
As AI becomes more familiar with a network’s environment, it can offer recommendations for optimizing both physical and virtual networks. AI can project future needs based on available data, such as market trends and consumer behaviors, helping businesses create networks that align more closely with their objectives.
Support
AI, such as ChatGPT and other virtual assistants, is transforming the way support roles function. AI can predict and resolve network issues that previously required engineers to visit sites in person, saving time and resources. AI can also automate network management tasks, allowing engineers to focus on higher-value work, like project planning and execution.
These changes will redefine the role of human managers in the enterprise. While some jobs may be eliminated, history shows that this can create opportunities for workers to contribute at a higher level, leading to more fulfilling, well-paid positions.
For networking professionals, this shift is particularly exciting. Instead of being seen as a cost center, they can become essential contributors to the business’s core, revenue-generating functions. However, those who fail to adapt to AI will likely be left behind—not by AI itself, but by others who use AI to enhance their productivity.
