Jansen justified the move as a necessary step towards making BT future-ready. BT's move is significant as it is one of the UK’s biggest employers with a near monopoly on the British telecoms industry. Rather than sparking backlash, the Communication Workers Union released anoting the decision was hardly a surprise. Rather than resisting the change, the CWU has chosen to take a proactive approach.
Jansen's perspective is mirrored by the chief executives of some of the world's leading employers. In his annual shareholder, Jamie Dimon underlines the importance of AI and the data that feeds it as pivotal to JPMorgan’s future success and the importance of implementing new technologies cannot be overstated.
While society seems to accept AI taking over mundane and repetitive tasks, its intrusion into areas that currently demand human creativity are facing backlash. This reaction suggests a possible threshold in our relationship with AI: we may welcome its role in easing our burden from mundane tasks, but we will resist when it challenges our unique human capacities such as creativity and critical thinking.
Given AI is still maturing, making precise predictions about its impact on financial markets and the future of work remains an unfathomable task. However, one thing is certain, those who not only embrace new technologies but also understand and effectively integrate them generally come out on top.