what are you saving it for?
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
what is artificial intelligence good for? we still don’t know. we know it’s going to be good for a lot, but so far, we’re using it only for a little – just a taste of what’s to come.
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one major impact will be on that elusive infinite, time.
for one thing, ai’s going to save a lot of time. tasks that used to take hours or days will soon take mere seconds.
but is that a good thing or a bad thing?
it depends. it depends on what you do with that freed-up time.
it also depends on what you do about billable hours.
just imagine: you show up for work at 9:00. by 9:15, your working day is done. ai has crunched the numbers, written the newsletter, answered your email, finished the report, implemented the marketing plan and billed two dozen clients a total of $29.35 for the 17 seconds of work spent on their tax returns. you can go home now, take a nap and slumber the day away with the satisfaction of knowing you just earned $29.35 without lifting a finger more than two inches off your mouse.
ah, but you forgot to ask your ai assistant one question: what to do about billable hours. because that $29.35 isn’t going to pay your mortgage for more than about, well, 17 seconds.
but maybe ai can somehow calculate the actual value of your product regardless of how much time it took to generate.
how to spend the time
value is a philosophical issue that ai can’t answer yet, so let’s move on to the other big question: what to do with the time that ai has made possible.
the recent “future of professionals report” issued by thomson reuters asked 2,200 professionals – accountants, attorneys, c-suite suits – how many hours ai will free up within the next year. they predicted an average of about four hours per week, or about 200 hours per year.
the survey then asked how they would spend that time. the most common answer by far is “work-life balance/well-being/hobbies/rest,” favored by an average of 24 percent. the average among respondents at tax and accounting firms is 34 percent.
future changes
a similar question got a similar answer. the question was “which of the following changes would you most like to see in your profession in the future?”
the leading response was “improved work-life balance,” indicated by an exhausted 59 percent.
the other responses depicted a productive yet utopian workplace.
- 42 percent would spend more time on engaging, judgment-based work.
- 38 percent would like to see improved mental health and well-being.
- 35 percent would like more innovation and willingness to change.
- 29 percent would want more opportunity to build skills.
- 20 percent would like to see improved access to legal justice and tax advice.
- 18 percent want a more collaborative culture.
- and at the bottom of the list, 12 percent wouldn’t mind seeing a little more diversity, equity and inclusion.
the survey also elicited open-ended responses to the question about future changes. some of the quotations, though anonymous, have “accountant” written all over them.
one suggests “building a culture that does not reward stress or overworking.”
another says, “discourage the hustle culture and late nights.”
another hopes to “use ai and tech to do tasks so we can use our brains for human judgment, strategy and creativity.”
and one, seemingly on the verge of cracking up, pleads for “more access to mental health services.”