(Photo credit: Vietnam National Innovation Center)

Since ChatGPT was released last November, it has become a technological phenomenon, attracting a stunning number of users in a short time. It passed the one-million-user mark just five days after it was made public, according to Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, the chatbot developer.

The technology promises to disrupt many jobs because it can replace routine, repetitive jobs that are easily codifiable. This raises a number of questions. First, are you scared?

(Photo credit: Vietnam National Innovation Center)

Tam Le, Business Analytics and Data leader of Turing, said at a recent workshop "The future of Generative AI", that she was first super-scared, but insisted, “I think it's also one of those moments in history that I feel very lucky to be with. And because it’s simple that we have a lot of improvements in technology.”

AI is transforming the way businesses operate, leading to significant changes in the job market. While some jobs will become obsolete, new job opportunities will emerge.

Tung Nguyen, Technological Manager of Misa, a company specializing in accounting software, said adaptation is vital.

“First, it’s necessary to learn and understand what the technology is and what it can do for you to help your study and future jobs. ChatGPT technology is being gradually applied in many fields and changing a lot of things. Second, you should keep a spirit of learning and updating all the time to quickly adapt to changes. What has been happening over the past 5 months since last November is a case in point. Everything has changed day by day, every hour,” said Tung.

As companies continue to adopt AI technologies, there will be a growing demand for people with the skills to develop and manage these technologies.

What Microsoft is deploying is an example, said Phi Dang Khoa, Microsoft Vietnam’s tech strategist and digital advisor.

Microsoft is applying AI to everyday life by integrating it into Word, Excel, Team, and Outlook, and turning it into AI services so that its client companies can easily integrate it into their own products.

Khoa noted as in the near future, it is a tool, companies will find ways to make the most of this tool to improve labor productivity.

“As a result, they want to hire people who are able to use the tool well. The first thing you should do is to learn how to use AI-based tools effectively so that your labor productivity will exceed that of your peers. Second, to use these tools effectively, what you must do immediately is improve your English to communicate with virtual assistants like CORE PILOT to give them the right input,” said Khoa.

(Photo credit: Vietnam National Innovation Center)

Tran Viet Hung, known as Hung Tran, the founder and president of Got It, a tech start-up based in Silicon Valley, said that since the launch of large language models (LLM) - a type of AI that can mimic human intelligence - old ways of working and old technologies will dissolve and the companies that use those methods will no longer exist because they will be unable to compete.  

Hung Tran, who is also the founder of STEAM for Vietnam, an NGO that provides free STEAM courses for Vietnamese students, said he only considers AI, ChatGPT, and similar technologies as tools.

“The key term students should remember is ‘prompt engineering’ not ‘language models’. Language models only give you good results when you write good prompts. So, what you need to do right now if you don't want to be left behind is to understand what prompt engineering is,” Hung said.

(Photo credit: Vietnam National Innovation Center)

Many jobs will require a combination of technical and social skills, making it important for workers to reskill and upskill. Because AI is automating routine and repetitive tasks, it’s crucial to learn new skills and adapt to changing work environments.

This means there will be an increasing demand for training programs and educational resources to help workers and students who are about to enter the job market stay competitive, said Rick Nguyen, co-founder and chairman of the Board of Spot Trender, a leader in advertising testing research.

"Now what's important to the students? Number one, communication is very important. So now you not only think about communicating to the human, but also to the AI, prompt engineering. How do you talk to humans effectively and how do you talk to the AI effectively?," said Rick Nguyen.

He went on to say, "Another skill that I think would probably be irreplaceable for the next five years is executive functions. What AI does is allowing you to do things more efficiently. It allows you to do things faster. But how do you decide what is the right thing to do? What kind of company should you build? What is the vision of the company? That's all still you."

"So as a student, you need to learn AI like everyone says, learn it, play with it, have fun with it, it's amazing. Learn how to communicate, but also practice your decision making, practice self-control, practice discipline, and finding the right things to do. It's very important,” Rick Nguyen concluded.