10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

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JOBS AND SKILLS

AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence is

changing the future of work
Aug 14, 2023

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10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

Artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize the future of work.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Mark Rayner
Insight Lead, Education, Skills and Learning, World Economic Forum

Listen to the article 8 min listen

Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the business agenda since chatbot ChatGPT
burst on to the scene in late 2022.

Generative AI is estimated to eventually automate millions of jobs, but its employment

benefits are harder to quantify.

Here are three ways that artificial intelligence will change the future of work, and why its
likely to augment rather than automate.

Since ChatGPT burst on to the scene in November 2022, generative artificial

intelligence (AI) has come to dominate the business agenda.

Boosts of a few percentage points in productivity are weighed against labour-

market disruptions, with Goldman Sachs estimating that generative AI will
eventually automate 300 million of today’s jobs.

Have you read?

The Future of Jobs Report 2023

The employment benefits of generative AI are harder to quantify, but the Future of
Jobs report’s cohort of 800 global business leaders is well placed to shed light on
the future.

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10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

Here are three ways that AI will change the future of work:

1. AI will drive job creation

Businesses responding to our survey expect artificial intelligence to be a net job
creator in the coming five years. Nearly half (49%) of companies expect adopting
AI to create jobs, well ahead of the 23% of respondents who expect it to displace
jobs.

The ranks of AI-linked roles such as data scientists, big data specialists and
business intelligence analysts are expected to swell by 30 to 35%, with growth
nearer 45% in companies operating in China.

Employment gains are expected to be strongest in the automotive and aerospace

industry, where 73% of companies expect employment gains. The research, design
and business management services, information and technology services and
electronics sectors follow closely behind.

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Though the outlook is sometimes mixed, only four of the 27 industries studied
expect net job losses. Workers in the oil and gas industry may be most exposed,
with 45% of companies expecting losses, 35% forecasting job creation and 20%
predicting no effect on employment.

The real estate, media, entertainment and sports and production of consumer
goods industries are the only other sectors to predict a negative outlook regarding
AI’s impact on employment.

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10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

A trickier question is who will benefit and who will be most at risk. A Chinese study
of the country’s manufacturing sector showed that artificial intelligence reduced
the demand for low-skilled labour across all regions and raised demand for high-
skilled labour in the east of the country.

But the picture may be shifting as AI masters increasingly complex tasks. In April,
researchers in the US found that highly-educated and highly-paid professions are
likely to be most exposed to generative AI.

2. Businesses will prioritize AI skills

AI and big data is the number one skills priority for companies with more than
50,000 employees. Beating out 25 other skill clusters spanning the range of hard
and soft skills needed in the workplace, the ability to boost business performance
using artificial intelligence is the number one focus of investment in skills training
for large companies responding to this year's Future of Jobs survey.

Across the full data sample, which spans small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
and large multinationals, AI and big data ranks behind only analytical and creative
thinking in skills strategies for the 2023 to 2027 period.

This is particularly striking as the C-suite executives responding to the survey only
ranked this skill cluster 16th in terms of its importance to workers today.
Exploiting artificial intelligence is a skill of the future.

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10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

Public-private cooperation on skills training will be key to making sure everyone is

swept along by the wave of increased productivity.

Initiatives such as TeachAI, a collaboration between the World Economic Forum,

Code.org and foremost leaders and experts on artificial intelligence, aims to
integrate AI and computer science skills in education to ensure that the next
generation of talent is prepared for the future of work.

Similarly, the Education 4.0 Alliance aims to surface promising examples of public-
private collaboration leveraging new technologies to develop future-ready skills.
At the same time UNESCO is offering thought leadership on the need for AI skills
in technical and vocational education and training – a crucial focus if the benefits
of AI are to be shared by all segments of the global labour market.

3. Tasks will be augmented, not automated

by AI
Despite technological strides forward, this year’s Future of Jobs report suggests
that businesses are becoming more sceptical about the potential for artificial

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10/24/23, 10:57 AM AI: 3 ways artificial intelligence will change the future of work | World Economic Forum

intelligence to fully automate work tasks. Executives estimate that 34% of tasks
are already automated – just one percentage point ahead of the figure reported in
the Future of Jobs Report 2020.

Future expectations for automation are also being revised down, as markets climb
the human-machine landscape more slowly than previously anticipated.
Respondents to this year’s survey forecast that an additional 9% of operational
tasks will be automated in the next five years – a reduction of five percentage
points compared to expectations in 2020.

The difference is a growing consensus that artificial intelligence will augment

human performance rather than fully supplanting it. For example, a survey of AI
experts published in June last year showed that most managerial skills are likely
to be augmented rather than automated by AI.

Only information gathering and simple decision-making are likely to be fully

automated, and leadership and imagination skills will be largely unaffected by AI.

Impact of generative AI on the future of

work?
The next edition of the Jobs of Tomorrow report, in collaboration with Accenture,
will shed further light on which jobs will see the largest impacts from generative AI
– whether through automation, augmentation, or both. Watch this space – results
are due to be published at the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings in
September.

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