There are two emerging AI trends that will impact our careers. These trends will also affect how products are built, especially how they’re billed. It’s about AI managers and AI workers, which are interconnected but need to be discussed separately.
Food delivery apps like Zomato and ride-sharing apps like Uber and Ola already employ AI managers. In these cases, AI algorithms do a good job allocating work. In the future, we’ll see more AI management tools, like routing and management algorithms. AI managers won’t just be used in offices; Bangalore airport uses DigiYatra, which uses facial recognition for check-in. Eventually, AI managers will become seamlessly integrated into our daily routines, assigning and evaluating tasks without us even noticing.
The second trend is hiring AI workers. It’s already starting to take shape. Instead of hiring human video or audio editors, you can use an app like Descript to remove background noise and edit recordings. With tools like Audiopen, you can dictate, transcribe, and write. These are just two examples of how AI workers will become more common.
Why call them AI workers instead of apps? Because they are like virtual assistants. People have been hiring virtual assistants around the world to do things like email management and calendar organizing. Typically, these assistants communicate using text-based platforms like WhatsApp.
Right now, there’s a real person answering these chats. However, as AI workers become more sophisticated and integrated into our lives, we may be able to communicate with them like human virtual assistants – blurring the lines between apps and workers. Imagine chatting with an AI chatbot, asking for research on specific topics like food allergies or flight schedules between Chandigarh and Bangalore. It might even book a flight for you and deduct the payment from your account.
We hire Ola and Uber for a specific trip. We don’t pay a monthly subscription. These “workers” will be billed like Ola and Uber. Instead of paying a monthly subscription, we’ll hire them for a specific task. So product builders will have to rethink how they bill and slice their products.