A Professor of Labour Economics/Human Resource Management in the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Olukemi Iyabode Lawanson has charged government at all levels to formulate and implement policies that will promote ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the educational, industrial and political spheres of the Nigerian Economy.
She gave the charge at the University’s Seventh (7th) Inaugural Lecture of the 2024/2025 Academic Session on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the J. F. Ade. Ajayi Auditorium, UNILAG, Akoka.
Delivering the Lecture titled: “To Everything There is a Season…”: The Perspective of a Labor Economist,Prof. Lawanson emphasized the need for the Federal, State and Local governments to ensure that all educational institutions from elementary to tertiary, are repositioned and well equipped to handle the automation that comes with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Her inaugural lecture brought to the fore, the ravaging and undeniable intrusion of AI especially in professions such as banking and financial services, health care, retail and e-Commerce, telecommunications, security and automotive industries. She noted that this development is responsible for the surge in the demand for ‘AI Engineers and Machine Learning Specialists’ as indicated on the World Economic Forum’s list of sought-after jobs.
She took the gathering through the history and evolution of Human Resource Management, it’s connection with Personnel Management and how AI has changed the landscape while also shaping the future of Personnel and Human Resources Management.
The Inaugural lecturer highlighted a number of professions which AI/Technology will overrun to include; Customer Service Representatives, Front desk officers/Receptionists, Accountants/Bookkeepers, Warehouse workers, Research analysts, Book keeping Clerks among others. She equally outlined professions that cannot be taken over by AI/Technology to include; Human Resource Management, Computer system analysts, Teachers, Sportsmen, Judges/Lawyers, Writers, Creatives, Clergy, Politicians, Health Care professionals among a few others.
While stressing the need for tertiary institutions to develop course contents which will cater to both technical and ethical aspects of AI, the Professor of Labour Economics/Human Resource Management suggested; Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Robotics, Data Science, AI Ethics, A.I in Business, Computer Vision and Generative AI as areas which should be factored into school curricula due to its potential impacts in shaping the future of Human Resource Management.
She also buttressed the need for interest in developing Workplace AI Skills which include; IT Project Management, Generative AI Modelling, Emotional Intelligence and Model tuning, abilities which according to Prof Lawanson, will help position newly trained graduates and existing hands for the fast approaching future of work.
As a road map for the future of work which she said is IT dependent, Prof Lawanson tasked all tiers of government to: establish a comprehensive AI policy for education, provide AI research grants, invest in AI infrastructure, encourage AI skills development as well as promote AI governance and ethics.
The inaugural lecturer further encouraged academics to: leverage AI for administrative tasks, employ AI-powered adaptive learning platforms to provide students with personalized contents, utilize AI to present students with personalized challenges and feedbacks that stimulate critical thinking and foster Social Emotional Learning.
Born on January 15, 1963, Professor Olukemi Iyabode Lawanson is a thorough-bred UNILAG alumnae with a B.Sc., MSc and PhD. in Economics.
She joined the services of her alma mater as an Assistant Lecturer and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Labour Economics/Human Resource Management, on October 1, 2019.
Prof Lawanson has over 38 publications to her credit. Her scholarly works deal extensively with Poverty, Employment and Unemployment, Human Capital Development, Population, Education and Gender among many others.
Prof Olukemi Lawanson is married, and blessed with children as well as grandchildren.
Report: Gbenga Gbelee
Photography: Ayomide Oloyede
