ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) will transform the workforce more than any previous industrial revolution, but it should not be feared, says former Bank South Pacific Financial Group Limited chief executive officer Robin Fleming.
He related his 42-year banking experience to nearly 600 graduates at the University of PNG School of Business and Public Policy graduation ceremony yesterday.
“Having commenced my working career in banking at a time when we still used machine-based (systems) before the widespread introduction of computers in the banking industry, there were similar concerns at that time about how computers would impact overall full-time employment,” he said.
He explained that those fears proved not true, with total employment continuing to grow through the computer era.
But he warned that AI carried greater disruptive potential.
“The AI revolution will be no less transformational, and has the potential to disrupt the workforce far more than agricultural and industrial revolutions,” Fleming said.
He cautioned graduates not to over-rely on technology at the expense of human judgment.
“We must remember that its intelligence is artificial,” Fleming said.
“The workforce still needs people such as yourselves, who have the power to reason, the ability to interrogate, the courage to question and perhaps counter-intuitively, the importance of patience.”
Of the 596 graduates, 250 were women.
Fleming welcomed that achievement, but said that much work remained.
At the postgraduate level, women made up only 31 per cent of the graduates.
He noted that family responsibilities and workplace pressures were the main factors hindering women from further success.
Fleming said people must be selected on ability and performance, and not just to fill aquota.
“We need to remain committed to a meritocracy that affords women equal opportunities to succeed to their full potential,” he said.
He added that women remained underrepresented in executive roles, senior public positions, and parliament in the country.
