Microsoft AI manager issues urgent 18-month warning to anyone who works in an office

The rise of artificial intelligence could wreak havoc on the job market within the next 18 months, an AI expert has warned.

There have already been huge advancements in artificial intelligence in just a few short years. We have seen huge changes to our day-to-day lives, while businesses have pushed to incorporate it into all different parts of their work. But with this change, one that could make working life easier, there have been redundancies as businesses look to take advantage of the new tech and potentially save money.

Understandably, this has led to fears that more jobs and even entire industries could be at risk. And according to the experts, it looks like this could happen much sooner than any of us could have imagined.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says AI will reach ‘human-level performance’ in white-collar work. These office jobs typically include banking, finance, risk management, internal audit, insurance, accountancy and more.

Certain jobs could be replaced with AI (Getty Stock)

Suleyman told the Financial Times: "White‐collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer - either being, you know, a lawyer, or an accountant, or a project manager, or a marketing person - most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months."

This change is happening right now, with Suleyman referencing ‘AI-assisted coding’ as becoming common already.

If AI is able to do the tasks humans do in white-collar office jobs, the question becomes why would employers hire humans? And what becomes of the humans currently employed in these positions, for whom employers must pay pensions and other expenses?

This leads to wider questions on whether AI will boost efficiency and generate even better employment opportunities, or if regular employees will face the brunt of the switchover to AI tech in the workplace.

Suleyman is not the only AI expert who is driving a conversation about how AI impacts work. Bill Gates shared his thoughts on what jobs he thinks will survive the advancement of AI for now, with the tech mogul picking out coders, energy experts, and biologists.

AI has already become a huge part of our lives (Getty Stock)

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘godfather of AI’ after years of groundbreaking research, has been spreading the word about the drawbacks of AI.

Hinton has claimed that AI capability is effectively doubling every seven months, which he believes could produce huge changes in workplaces in the near future.

He believes cognitive work, known as 'menial' work, will be wiped out by AI first. This includes people who work in call centers, customer service, scheduling and transcription.

Next, AI could mean jobs are no longer available in journalism (oh no!), marketing and basic accounting.

And after that, the possibilities are basically endless.