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Sarah O'Connor (FT) asks what happens when AI removes basic work from which new/junior staff learn the ropes?
One source she consulted 'wondered if we might one day see a return of the old apprenticeship system that existed in much of Europe before the industrial revolution, in which families who could afford it would pay for their offspring to be apprenticed to a master. The implications of this for social mobility — already not great in many professions — go without saying'!
I was thinking about this the other day
I'm an accountant with 20 years experience
I was talking to a CFO the other day who wants to bring in AI for reconciliations (a fairly basic, slightly tedious, incredibly important task)
I no longer do reconciliations myself, but I review those done by other people, and the reason I'm good at reviewing them is because over the first 10 years of my career I did thousands of them (not an exaggeration, literally thousands)
1/2
If this work is automated away from people in their early careers, then they will never be good at reviewing them, whether they're prepared by a person or an AI
So in just a few decades, the accountants with 20 years experience won't be able to do the work of a senior accountant because they didn't learn the work of a junior accountant
yes, O'Connor cites accountancy as one of the professions so impacted; in exactly the way your experience suggests