Financial Times says AI may shift more work from staff to customers

In short: A Financial Times opinion column argues that AI could change jobs mainly by pushing more work onto customers, not just by replacing workers inside companies.

What's going on

The Financial Times columnist Carl Benedikt Frey says people often ask the wrong question about AI and jobs. The usual question is, “Can a machine do this job?” He says a better question is, “Can the customer do without this job?”

He uses past examples to explain the idea. ATMs did not immediately wipe out bank teller jobs, partly because banks could serve more customers at lower cost. But later, online and mobile banking let customers deposit checks and send money themselves, which reduced the need to visit a branch.

Frey compares this to the washing machine. It did not “automate” a laundress in the sense of doing her paid job inside a laundry business. It gave households the ability to do laundry at home, so the service was needed less.

He argues AI can extend this self-service pattern into more areas. He gives examples like shoppers using self-checkout, travelers booking trips online without an agent, and homeowners asking a chatbot why a boiler is losing pressure instead of calling an engineer. He also suggests patients may use AI tools to understand test results before seeing a doctor.

What to watch

Frey says this shift can make company productivity numbers look better, while the extra time spent by customers is not counted in official measures like GDP. If more services become “do it yourself with AI,” policymakers and workers may need to pay attention to where the work is actually going, and who is doing it.

Source: Financial Times