AI synthetic workers could expand Jersey workforce

Jersey could expand its workforce without adding to the population by using artificial intelligence (AI) workers, the head of Digital Jersey has said.

The Annual Review for Digital Jersey, which is charged with growing the island's digital sector, on Thursday focused on the use of AI in the workplace and how its use could be expanded in the future.

Key speakers spoke about the impact of tech intensive industries on Jersey's economy, what the island could do to maximise AI adoption and how organisations could integrate AI effectively.

Tony Moretta, Digital Jersey's CEO, said the island could expand its economic output without increasing its population with "synthetic workers".

He said: "It's a challenge to recruit people in Jersey like lots of places these days... we have to move to the next step which is automating tasks using AI agents.

"We could use AI to effectively have what's often known in the industry as synthetic workers."

Moretta said it would not be possible to expand Jersey's financial services workforce by about 14,000 "because of the impact that would have on housing and other aspects".

He said the use of synthetic workers would do "a lot of the work more quickly, more competitively" and would "increase the amount of business we can cope with as an island".

Moretta disagreed with the idea that AI would take "people's jobs" if synthetic workers were introduced to the workplace.

He said: "I think we will lose jobs if we don't have a skilled workforce, if employers do not offer their workers the opportunity to upskill, to reskill, if we don't give school leavers the skills they need in the new business roles that are going to come up.

"I think you still need individuals working with AI, you still need humans in the loop, but we have to make sure those humans have the skills to use AI."

Moretta said AI presented "both a huge opportunity and potentially a huge threat" for the island.

He said: "So the opportunity is for us to improve our productivity, to improve our competitiveness, especially in areas like financial services, and to really grow the amount of business we can take on without growing the population.

"If we don't embrace the technology, if we do not make sure we have the skills to use the technology offered by AI, then the threat is that we could become less competitive compared to other jurisdictions.

"We could lose business and we could lose jobs."

Katie King, who trains businesses to use AI, spoke at the review to share how Jersey could be innovative in agriculture, tourism and finance.

She said: "Jersey is a relatively small island, so I think it can act in a really nimble way - you have a great reputation in financial services, it's protecting that tradition and using AI to amplify that.

"To think about everyday productivity for all of us in using tools like Co-pilot and ChatGPT, but also the way that those tools are completely reshaping some of the sectors that are integral to Jersey's success.

"It's like the electricity of the modern day, we need these tools to be able to keep us ahead and keep us competitive in comparison to other similar sectors around the world."

King said she believed using synthetic workers would benefit all sectors.

"We're really talking about whether you are in medicine, whether you're in financial services, in the tourism industry, that you've got these tools, you've got these synthetic avatars and so on, who alongside you, not replacing you, but enhancing what you do," she said.

Elizabeth Bosch, who is a photographer, said she does not use AI images but it could be helpful if you know what you want it to do.

Shewas not worried about AI affecting her job because "if its man-made it'll stay unique" but she said issues around copyright were "a concerning factor".

Bosch said: "I've even seen videos that are AI that look real so I feel very sorry for the older generation.

"I mean, how do you tell? It's quite scary."

Harry Brown said he does not use AI because it is "lazy" and we are "too reliant on it".

He said: "People rely on it too much to do pretty much everything now - booking holidays, or crazy things like writing emails."

Brown added: "I use Twitter a lot and there's loads of AI-generated stuff on there that's quite scary actually."

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