Are We Ready to Inject AI to Our Economy? – By Nisal Ruksha
A hustle-bustle lifestyle with various types of role-play makes humans busy and stressed. As solutions, human intelligence brings some answers. Man-made apparatus and tools are now available in every sector to simplify the activities from womb to tomb in the life cycle; technologically improvised devices surround us everywhere.
Kevin Ashton’s Internet of Things empowered (IoT) digital computers, robots, and satellites were pioneers in the field and now Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the lead powering Fourth Industrial Revolution. Decision-making, the ability to reason, analyze or generalize previous experiences, and intellectual processes are now within AI’s robot capabilities, controlled by a digital computer or computer-controlled robot. (But it is noteworthy that its capabilities are remain different from human intelligence and limited to specific domains and tasks.)
The specialty of AI includes capabilities of human-like abilities; learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception and language understanding. This base-wide spread, in engineering, education, medicine, economy, agriculture, healthcare, science, technology, sports and even in the fields of social sciences.
According to some research published in the IMF blog in advanced economies almost 40% of global employment is affected by AI. Further, it reveals that in the advanced economy, it will impact 60% of the jobs. It enhances the economy halfway and on the other way, AI will replace some human-attended works which affect the labour demand, lower wages and the disappearance of certain jobs.
Similarly, in an Economy like our country (Emerging market and low-income) AI exposure is expected 25% and the impact on the jobs will be 29%. According to further explanation of the researches, there will be certain rapid changes which can cause temporary upheaval in an emerging economy at a time of immediate implementation. It is required to have strong foundation of infrastructure and skilled human resources compatible with AI, to achieve the desired results.
Sri Lanka can utilize AI, in an effective and efficient manner as a Nation with 92% of education literacy, 39% of computer literacy and 60% of digital literacy (as per Department of Census and Statistics Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies data in 2022); specially, for the sectors like economy, for creative and cognitive jobs, agriculture as a substitution for the scarcity of labour, recognizing condition changes like soil and climate, the engineering sector for innovations, the field of science experiments in health care, and education databases with a lot of knowledge.
Prior to fully adopting the AI, it is essential to carry out local researches or studies in this regard. Not only the success stories but the failed ones too will serve as valuable lessons and provide insight to address emerging issues or challenges. Enhancement of literacy in Information Technology and much needed infrastructure development in information technology in the well-recognized fields has to be supervised by relevant experts to obtain expected objectives and outcomes.
Careful navigation is required, as it will be met with a mix of positive and negative challenges. The economy will be inter-connected and multifaceted; hence let’s be prepared to thrive since we are a part of this global village.
Nisal Rukshan, MHRM, B.A. (Defence), BSc (Hons.) Counselling Psychology, DCPsy
Email: rukshan4slsr@gmail.com
