This is a time of great enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Employers and employees are excited about the prospects of the new tools coming online. We are introduced to new versions of AI driven tools and ways to use these tools to become more productive every day.
Students, small business owners, investors, and individuals seeking to cash in while avoiding having to hire people to help them build businesses are on the tech bandwagon.
A recent report from Venturebeat reiterates the looming threat to jobs that many are either ignoring or are ignorant to.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “almost 40% of global employment is exposed to AI.” Brookings said last fall in another report that “more than 30% of all workers could see at least 50% of their occupation’s tasks disrupted by gen AI.” Several years ago, Kai-Fu Lee, one of the world’s foremost AI experts, said in a 60 Minutes interview that AI could displace 40% of global jobs within 15 years.
AI is here and as I point out in AI Is Coming for Your Job, you can take action now to upskill and ride the AI wave while others are struggling to find work.
Let me know your thoughts on surviving in the age of AI.
AI technology is being used to streamline onboarding processes for companies large and small. It can save HR days of time…and reduce the number of people needed on the HR team.
Hitachi, for example, uses time reduction as a key performance indicator. Its department conducted market research and built a private AI system with a custom large language model. MSN reported the details: Workers fed the model with data from corporate sites, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, and employment books so that it could accurately answer new hires’ questions.
This work was previously completed by “human” resources. Note, humans are still needed to feed AI tools the information needed to replace ultimately replace themselves.
Hitachi’s IT then worked with HR to beta test the AI onboarding agents with various departments. Once KPIs and service-level agreements were met, teams scaled the AI for onboarding in October after the roughly six-month process.
The results: saving four days in onboarding and reducing HR staff involvement from 20 hours per new hire to 12 hours.
As I point out in my new book, AI is Coming For Your Job, What you can do to Survive and Thrive, people in businesses across the world are being used to train AI technology to do the work. Companies thirsty for the cost savings are pushing AI as hard as they can. Your only hope for economic survival is to upskill toward AI support roles. Any job which includes repetetive tasks, such as onboarding and training new employees, will be replaced.
NBC News reports that AI-powered voice cloning technology has advanced to the point where it can replicate a person’s speech patterns with just a few seconds of sample audio. This capability has already been exploited in high-profile incidents, including a deceptive robocall campaign during last year’s Democratic primaries. In that case, fake audio mimicking President Biden urged voters not to cast their ballots—an operation orchestrated by a political consultant who was later fined $6 million. In response, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has now banned AI-generated robocalls.
Despite regulatory actions, new research highlights a troubling reality: most commercially available AI voice cloning tools still lack effective safeguards. A survey of six leading platforms found that five of them were easily manipulated to clone voices without consent. Compounding the problem, deepfake detection software often struggles to differentiate between real and AI-generated voices, raising serious concerns for businesses, employees, and policymakers alike.
For companies, this underscores the urgent need to invest in fraud detection, multi-factor authentication, and AI governance policies to safeguard sensitive communications. As voice cloning technology continues to evolve, staying ahead of potential misuse will be critical for maintaining trust in both business and political environments.
With the rise of deepfake voice scams, AI-generated fraud, and voice phishing attacks, businesses and employees must be more vigilant than ever.
Cybercriminals are now using realistic AI voice cloning technology to impersonate executives, deceive customers, and manipulate financial transactions—posing a serious threat to corporate security and brand integrity.
As AI-powered deepfake technology becomes more sophisticated, companies must implement advanced cybersecurity measures, AI fraud detection tools, and voice authentication systems to protect against AI-generated scams and synthetic identity fraud. Failing to act now could leave businesses vulnerable to high-stakes security breaches, reputational damage, and financial losses caused by AI-driven deception.
Are you concerned about AI Voice Cloning in your business?
We’ll be talking to experts on this technology and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments in an upcoming episode of Mike Schiano In the Queue Podcast. Stay tuned.
