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How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

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Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#11

Post by johnnyanmac »

gtowey wrote: post #4
m463 wrote: post #2

I wonder if web searches used to be pretty productive, then declined as sponsored results and SEO degraded things. Nowadays an ai assist with a web search usually eliminates the search altogether and gives you a clear answer right away. for example, "how much does a ford f-150 cost" will give you something ballpark in a second, compared to annoying "research" to find the answer shrouded in corporate obfuscation.

I was just thinking exactly the same. Basic web search has become so horrible that AI is being used as its replacement. I found it a sad condemnation of how far the tech industry has fallen into enshittification and is failing to provide tools that are actually useful.

And it'll happen again when AI models start resorting to ads once again.

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#12

Post by shermantanktop »

amarant wrote: post #9
AIorNot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I was recently talking to a person who was working as a BA who specializes in corporate AI adoption- they didn’t realize you could post screenshots to ChatGPT These are not the openclaw folks

What does it even mean to specialise in something and know so little about it? What exactly is this BA person doing? Genuinely confused, I don't get it

The “corporate” in “corporate AI” can mean tons of work building metrics decks, collecting pain points from users, negotiating with vendors…none of which requires you to understand the actual tool capabilities. For a big company with enough of a push behind it, that’s probably a whole team, none of whom know what they are actually promoting very well.

It’s good money if you can live with yourself, and a mortgage and tuitions make it easy to ignore what you are becoming. I lived that for a few years and then jumped off that train.

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#13

Post by PeterStuer »

irjustin wrote: post #5

FWIW, these studies are too early. Large orgs have very sensitive data privacy considerations and they're only right now going through the evaluation cycles. Case in point, this past week, I learned Deloitte only recently gave the approval in picking Gemini as their AI platform. Rollout hasn't even begun yet which you can imagine is going to take a while. To say "AI is failing to deliver" because only 4% efficiency i…

Meanwhile, "shadow" AI use is around 90%. And if you guess IT would lead the pack on that, you are wrong. It's actually sales and hr that are the most avid unsactioned AI tool users.

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#14

Post by monkpit »

shermantanktop wrote: post #12
amarant wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it even mean to specialise in something and know so little about it? What exactly is this BA person doing? Genuinely confused, I don't get it

The “corporate” in “corporate AI” can mean tons of work building metrics decks, collecting pain points from users, negotiating with vendors…none of which requires you to understand the actual tool capabilities. For a big company with enough of a push behind it, that’s probably a whole team, none of whom know what they are actually promoting very well. It’s good money if you can live with yourself, and a mortgage and…

Sounds like a perfect job for AI!

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#15

Post by monkpit »

m463 wrote: post #2

I wonder if web searches used to be pretty productive, then declined as sponsored results and SEO degraded things. Nowadays an ai assist with a web search usually eliminates the search altogether and gives you a clear answer right away. for example, "how much does a ford f-150 cost" will give you something ballpark in a second, compared to annoying "research" to find the answer shrouded in corporate obfuscation.

The turning point was around when google stopped honoring Boolean ops and quotation marks

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#16

Post by emptybits »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #11
gtowey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking exactly the same. Basic web search has become so horrible that AI is being used as its replacement. I found it a sad condemnation of how far the tech industry has fallen into enshittification and is failing to provide tools that are actually useful.

And it'll happen again when AI models start resorting to ads once again.

Yup. Any LLM recommendation for a product or service should be viewed with suspicion (no different than web search results or asking a commission-based human their opinion). Sponsored placements. Affiliate links. Etc.

Or when asking an LLM for a comparison matrix or pros and cons between choices ... beware paid placements or sponsors. Bias could be a result of available training data (forgivable?) or due to paid prioritization (or de-prioritizing of competitors!)

Re: How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

#17

Post by yoyohello13 »

irjustin wrote: post #5

FWIW, these studies are too early. Large orgs have very sensitive data privacy considerations and they're only right now going through the evaluation cycles. Case in point, this past week, I learned Deloitte only recently gave the approval in picking Gemini as their AI platform. Rollout hasn't even begun yet which you can imagine is going to take a while. To say "AI is failing to deliver" because only 4% efficiency i…

Exactly, my company started carefully dipping their toes in to org wide AI mid last year (IT has been experimenting earlier than that, but under pretty strict guidelines from infosec). There is so much compliance and data privacy considerations involved.

And for the record I think they are absolutely right to be cautious, a mistake in my industry can be disastrous so a considered approach to integrating this stuff is absolutely warranted. Most established companies outside of tech really can’t have the “move fast break things” mindset.

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