AI won't replace humans, but reskilling essential - IBM PH experts

Experts from IBM Philippines said on Thursday that while artificial intelligence (AI) will not completely replace humans in the workplace, people should improve their skills in light of the rapidly evolving technology.

IBM Philippines technical sales leader Jong Torres said that the rise of generative AI has created new roles that require upgraded skills.

“It’s a reality that certain tasks that are repeatable, that are very manual in nature, can easily be automated and will be replaced by an AI entity,” said Torres during a workshop.

“But at the same time, with the advent of GenAI (generative AI), there are new roles or new jobs that are created—more premium, shall we say, or more premium when it comes to skills requirements,” he added.

“So you want to be in that situation where you become more valuable because you have skills that are quite up to date. It’s a reality that some organizations or some people face, because they get displaced, but when that happens, they also get reskilled to another role.”

According to a study by Jobstreet by SEEK last year, 46% of Filipino respondents reported that they use generative AI monthly in their work.

Among the popular generative AI platforms are ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Watsonx.

In January, the Federation of Free Workers warned that around 5 million Filipino workers could lose their jobs this year due to AI and climate change.

According to FFW, this is based on the projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that 14% of the total workforce in the Philippines is at risk of being replaced by AI as well as job losses of 2.3 million due to the effects of typhoons in 2024.

“Will AI replace humans? No,'' said Rjel Lara, IBM Philippines' solutions architect.

Lara said humans help to improve AI services.

"Humans will still have to check if the intelligence system of the AI system performs its task well…and feed that back to the AI so the AI can learn better,” he said. “So you're still needed.” — VBL, GMA Integrated News