Losing jobs because of AI

Vy Quan’s regular income comes from two sources, one from a game design company, the other from collaborating with publishers. Each of her products is paid from 250,000 to 1.5 million VND, depending on the complexity. With foreign publishers, they propose a fixed price of 45 USD.

But the number of Quan's painting orders has steadily dropped over the past year, from 10 to six, and finally to one or two paintings a month. Customers have switched to AI paintings. "I feel like someone else is taking my rice bowl," the 36-year-old woman said.

She applied to collaborate in many places but was rejected because there was no need or not enough funding. One place said directly that they were using AI (artificial intelligence) even though they knew its products were not as good as those of artists, but they produced results quickly, had many ideas and, importantly, were very cost-effective.

Quan’s gaming company also started recruiting artists who knew how to use AI, making her concerns even more apparent. Management encouraged the use of technology to speed up projects.

Talking to others in her profession, she realized she was not alone. “A lot of graphic designers have lost their jobs or are being retained by their companies to supplement ideas and perfect AI paintings,” she said.

Ka Nguyen, 35, shared his "unprecedented shock" when he saw AI handle the entire voiceover for a 30-45 second TVC (advertising video) for a cost of VND10,000. Normally, avoice talent(people with good voices, specialized in recording and dubbing) like you are paid 3-4 million VND for similar TVCs.

"They said there was no reason to continue hiring me," Ka said. The past six months have been the most difficult period of avoice talenthave 10 years of experience.

In mid-March, Ka happened to hear his voice on an unfamiliar podcast. Surprised, he looked through his previous contracts and realized that a unit had used his voice to produce an AI podcast. That means they only hired him once to model for the AI ​​and did not order again.

In early April, the company Ka had worked with for more than 5 years announced that it "no longer had enough funds to rent."voice talent", forcing him to quit. Later, he realized that they were cleverly trying to fire him, so he switched to using AI. If hiring workers, the company would have to spend 100,000 VND for a small voice clip, but AI can process hundreds of A4 pages for less than 20,000 VND.

“The human voice is smooth, with intonation, but between quality and so-so and low cost, they will have to choose AI,” Ka said. Ka’s income has dropped more than 60%. “Shocked, disappointed and frustrated,” he said of his current situation.

The difficulties of Ka Nguyen and Quan were predicted in a report by the McKinsey Global Institute (USA) with at least 14% of global workforce changing careers due to advances in technology, robots and AI.

New data released by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a survey of CEOs in the Asia Pacific region shows that 26% said they would cut staff due to AI replacement.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted at the World Economic Forum in early 2024 that more than 40% of the global workforce will be affected by AI by 2030.

Dang Hai Loc, founder of the virtual assistant development platform Mindmaid, said that the demand for businesses to use AI has increased by 300% in the past year. In particular, AI is developing rapidly in three directions, including the level of intelligence, the increasingly expanding field and low usage costs. For example, the OpenAI API (ChatGPT) decreased by about 90% and in 2024 alone, it decreased by an average of 60%.

He assessed that AI is directly affecting Vietnamese workers through a number of easily replaceable jobs such as customer service staff, graphics, product photography models, and content marketing staff.

Experts believe that the ultimate application value of AI is automation, so any repetitive activity in a business will gradually be replaced. Losing jobs or living a more difficult life because of AI competition is inevitable. Workers have only one way out: to continuously expand their "survival space".

“AI will become more and more powerful and the chase for each worker may never stop,” said Mr. Loc.

Bao Vy, 38 years old, feels out of breath in this battle. The girl from Binh Thuan used to live well as a freelance illustrator, earning more than 10 million VND per month.

Since the beginning of 2024, she has only received one order every few weeks. In October alone, she did not receive any "jobs". Vy has been forced to tighten her belt to keep her living expenses at a basic level, and focus the rest of her energy on the coffee shop she is running in Ham Thuan Bac district.

Vy said that previous customers admitted that the paintings drawn by AI "had many stiff lines, lacked emotion, and were prone to errors" but the advantages of being fast and cheap won out.

Mr. Bui Doan Chung, founder of the Vietnam Human Resources Community, said this situation is a predicted trend as well as a ripe opportunity in terms of infrastructure, hardware and software (semiconductor chips, internet bandwidth, microprocessors). Therefore, the explosion of AI is not a surprise.

ReportWorkplace Learning 2024LinkedIn's global AI study shows that AI is changing the way workers work and plan their careers. Experts say organizations need to take immediate action in training for career transitions and employee competencies. "Organizations that are able to learn faster and more effectively will have more competitive advantages over their competitors," said Chung.

Conversely, workers who are being replaced and are being replaced are forced to learn quickly and continuously. Skills related to AI programming, machine learning, data analysis, and interacting with automation tools will become essential.

At the same time, skills such as leadership, emotional management, creative thinking and human interaction will not be replaced by AI. Developing soft skills will help create value in a technology-enabled work environment. According to LinkedIn, up to 90% of L&D (Learning & Development) professionals admit that human skills are vital.

Vy Quan still considers herself lucky because she still has a job as a game designer while her friends in the same field have been unemployed for two years. They were forced to switch to hourly work and give up the field they have been in for 10 years.

"I'm learning financial investment because I don't know when I'll lose my job in the future," she said.