FORGET Skynet. Hypothetical world-ending artificial intelligence makes headlines, but the hype ignores what's happening right under our noses. Cheap, fast AI is already taking our jobs, we just haven't noticed.

This isn't dumb automation that can rapidly repeat identical tasks. It's software that can learn about and adapt to its environment, allowing it to do work that used to be the exclusive domain of humans, from customer services to answering legal queries.

These systems don't threaten to enslave humanity, but they do pose a challenge: if software that does the work of humans exists, what work will we do?

In the last three years, UK telecoms firm O2 has replaced 150 workers with a single piece of software. A large portion of O2's customer service is now automatic, says Wayne Butterfield, who works on improving O2's operations. "Sim swaps, porting mobile numbers, migrating from prepaid onto a contract, unlocking a phone from O2" – all are now automated, he says.