Please note this tale is fictional or is it????
The AV Tech and AI:
This tale takes place at a university just like the ones we all work at. We have John, who is the school’s lead AV tech, who has been assigned the project of installing AV equipment in the president’s conference room.
Boss – John, seeing how you are our lead AV technician I need you to take lead on the president’s conference room. With your years of experience this should be easy for you. Be mindful that there is a high level board meeting being held in the conference room on Dec 15th so the room needs to be functional.
John – sure thing boss.
John goes back to his desk and fires up the AV design tool. Once the program opens up the AI wizard pops up.
AI Wizard – Welcome back John, what type of room are we designing today?
John – I am designing the president’s conference room and it needs to be working by Dec 15th.
AI Wizard – The president’s conference room you say. This will be a good project. Let me get the project started. I will base this project off past projects as well as other presidents conference rooms projects that been uploaded to my database
3 seconds later
AI Wizard – John, here are the documents for the president conference room
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BOM.pdf
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Wiring_Diagram.pdf
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President_Conference_Room_Code.zip
AI Wizard – Should I submit the PO to have the equipment ordered?
John clicks the yes button
AI Wizard – PO has been submitted and says based off the estimated equipment shipped date, the president conference room schedule, and the team’s schedule, installation should take place on Dec 14th
John – Boss the president’s conference room project is set for installation on Dec 14th.
Boss – Is that enough time John? Remember there is a board meeting being held on Dec 15th
John – Yes the AI wizard did the BOM, wiring diagram and the code. Once the equipment gets here it will be a matter of connecting the cables, loading the code, and hitting the AI tune button for the audio. We shouldn’t be there for more than 2 hours.
Boss – Ok I am trusting you John. starts walking away and mumbles to himself You young folks and your AI tools
Dec 14th comes
AV team – John we have an issue with the president conference room project.
John – What is the issue?
AV team – The wiring diagram calls for the cable between the projector and the video switcher to be VGA. We don’t even know what a VGA cable is, do you?
John – No I don’t know anything about VGA but if the AI Wizard’s wiring diagram said to connect using VGA cable then go find a VGA cable and make the connection.
3 hours later
AV team – John we have another issue in the president conference room.
John – What is the issue this time?
AV team – The power on button is not turning on the display. Looking at the BOM the display is listed as ‘display manufacturer model S6534KZ’ but the display we got is ‘display manufacturer model S65554KZ’. We talked to the manufacturer’s tech support and they told us that the power on command between these two models are different. Do you know how to update the code?
John – No I do not know how to update the code. I will need to have an AI Wizard handle that.
3 hours later
AV team – John we have another issue with the president conference room. The audio doesn’t sound right and the president is not happy with it.
John – Did you press the AI tune button?
AV team – yes we did but still doesn’t sound right. Can we get in there and adjust it?
John – I don’t know how, I never worked with a DSP before. I just always hit the AI tune button.
John enter his boss’s office
John – Boss I am sorry but the president conference room will not be ready for tomorrow.
Boss – What do you mean it will not be ready? What is the issue?
John – The AI Wizard diagram called for the use of a VGA cable, the team never worked with a VGA cable before so we had to go find one and learn about it. Then the manufacturer sent us a different model display than what AI Wizard had on the BOM. The team did confirm with the manufacturer that commands to control this mode are different from the other model. They had to send us this newer model as the other model was out of stock. After having AI Wizard write new code for the new model, we then ran into an audio issue. The president is not happy with how the room sounds. We did press the AI tune button but he was still not happy with the audio. No one on the team has the skills to change the DSP settings.
Boss – John didn’t you review the information that the AI Wizard gave?
John – I did but I didn’t know what I was looking at
Boss – John, you been in AV for how long? You don’t understand how to read a BOM list? Read a wiring diagram? Modified code? Adjust audio in the DSP?
John – No, in school and my training all I did was use the AI tools. We never learned how to do those basics as that was the job for AI so we could focus on higher level things?
Boss – Ok, so what higher level things do you know that can get the president’s conference room ready for tomorrow?
John – Nothing.
Boss – John this is unacceptable and someone with your experience should be able to handle the basics and not require AI to do it all for you. In fact if AI has been doing all of your work, then why do we even have you on staff? John I am sorry but we will have to let you go. We will need to find someone who has the skills and knowledge to handle the basics of AV as well as the higher level tasks without requiring AI to do it all for them.
This tale might be fictional but it is something I can see happening in the next couple of years. There is a push to have AI do more and more of the basic tasks so we can handle the more complex tasks. The thing is, how do we build the skills to handle these complex tasks if we do not know the basics. Yes AI can help make our jobs easier but there is a cost in relying on AI heavily to handle the basic tasks. Are you willing to pay that price?