AI could increase competition in the banking sector

However, the release of ChatGPT in late 2022 has renewed concerns around machines taking over human jobs, as AI has the capability to replace routine manual cognitive tasks.

AMP economist Diana Mousina said, similar to the public concerns that increased ATMs would bring massive redundancies in the banking sector, the reality is “customers want to talk to a human when making important financial decisions”.

However, she said artificial intelligence would help to automate the sector, for example, enhance online chatbots, help consumers to become savvier by researching before making decisions, and increase competition between banks.

“This means that employees in the banking sector are likely to work closely with AI and develop and teach AI but there is still a massive role for humans in the industry,” Ms Mousina said.

“Whether or not ChatGPT itself becomes as widely used as expected, artificial intelligence usage is here to stay and will have impacts on how humans live.”

Boost to productivity

Indeed, technological advancements are nothing new and each event would have seemed like a big adjustment, but the ultimate result has been “a rise in per capita GDP”, Ms Mousina said.

Noting Australian labour market data since the 1980s, Ms Mousina said there was a correlation between technological advancement and a decline in “routine cognitive jobs”, while over the same period, non-routine cognitive jobs had risen, such as higher-skilled and service-based roles.

In Australia, productivity is down by 3.5 per cent over the year to March, with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) signalling the need to lift productivity growth as a requirement to lower unit wages growth in Australia and scale back inflation.

The RBA’s May minutes stated that the bank’s forecasts for inflation to return to the top of the target band by mid-2025 were “predicated on productivity growth returning to around the modest pace recorded prior to the pandemic. If this did not occur, growth in unit labour costs would be uncomfortably fast.”

“Declines in productivity growth result in a rise in unit labour costs which is inflationary and negative for living standards in the long run,” Ms Mousina explained.

“AI could be the productivity boost we all needed.”

Home Affairs blocks ChatGPT

Meanwhile, as previously reported in our sister title CyberSecurity Connect, the Department of Home Affairs has placed a block on ChatGPT for public servants, as it remains hopeful that a whole-of-government position on the AI tool will be established.

Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo has said that there were concerns surrounding the way that ChatGPT, as a third-party entity, conducted data and said that the suspension was to prevent the use of artificial intelligence (AI) without direct evaluation and approval.

“Managing something corporately where you might have a proprietary engagement, where you know where the data’s stored and what limitations are placed on the data is one thing,” said Pezzullo at a Senate estimates on Monday (22 May).

[Related: What does ChatGPT think of mortgage brokers]