ShareBy Passant Hisham, Chidi Emmanuel
KUWAIT: As a result of technological advancements, certain businesses, occupations, and professions are becoming less common and obsolete. Just a few years ago, there were lots of call centers, shoemakers, watch repairers, photo studios, travel agents, etc. in Kuwait, but with the advancement of technology, many businesses and occupations are becoming old-fashioned. These trends reflect broader shifts in technology and consumer preferences, leading to the decline of certain jobs while also creating new opportunities.
“With the rise of online booking platforms, fewer people now use traditional travel agents to plan their trips. With or without artificial intelligence (AI), many businesses and professions are gradually fading away. It is not only travel agents; the decline in physical mail due to email and digital communication has badly affected post offices and their services. It is rare to see anyone using post offices these days,” Abbas Amr, a travel agent, told the Kuwait Times.
For Arjun Viraj, an Asian watch repairer in Maliya, business is no longer as usual. “Actually, people now prefer to buy new watches instead fixing their old watches. Many people don’t even wear watches anymore. They use their mobile phones to check time. I am now learning how to fix computers,” he said.
With the escalating global fear of AI taking over our jobs and leaving us at risk of sudden unemployment, Ronny Engen, an AI and strategy expert, offers a different perspective. While he agrees that some jobs might entirely disappear, he believes that others will simply rely more on automated bots and less on human workers. According to Engen, jobs involving research, data collection, and information processing are particularly susceptible to this shift.
He referred to jobs such as paralegals, whose role mainly focuses on assisting lawyers by collecting relevant legal information. Jobs like translators, bookkeepers, and cashiers are also at equal risk. Supporting his argument, he said, “I used machine translation software once, and I think it effectively does 95 percent of the translator’s job.” Regarding cashiers, he noted that a popular grocery store in Kuwait has already started using automated scanning services to handle product scanning, payment, and checkout procedures.
Job roles that are systematically performed and don’t require creative input are also at risk. Engen mentioned cleaners and taxi drivers who could be replaced by automated driving software, and security guards who could be replaced by advanced cameras for pattern and facial recognition. Yet, after all, Engen believes that many people can still have a chance to secure their jobs, as throughout decades and with advancements in technology, humans have always found a way back to the market, with new roles to be in control of. “You will always see people coming to a shop needing human help, but instead of having 10 cashiers, maybe you can do with one and the rest are automated.”
For the market to always demand human capital, he highlighted the need for the future workforce to become generalists rather than specialists. People must build broad knowledge across different fields. “The best thing that people can do is become forever learners. Always study, always learn new things, be hungry for knowledge, and be ready to take on a career. Be ready to branch out of it. Find things where you have transferable skills,” he advised.
When it comes to specialist jobs, individuals need to learn how to utilize AI to enhance their tasks effectively. They must know how to critique AI’s work and guide it throughout the process. “I tend to think of AI like this: imagine you had the top student from the top university in the world, and they got their first job with you. They are like interns - great, good, amazing, but with no experience. Right? So, you’re always on top, always checking everything,” Engen explained.
