According to a survey released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, 41 percent of businesses plan to reduce their personnel as AI automates some duties.
According to the WEF’s Future of Jobs Report, 77 percent of the hundreds of large organisations questioned worldwide stated that they planned to reskill and upskill their current employees between 2025 and 2030 to better operate alongside AI.
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However, this year’s report did not state that the majority of technologies, including artificial intelligence, were anticipated to be “a net positive” for job numbers, in contrast to the previous edition from 2023.
The WEF said in a press release ahead of its annual meeting in Davos later this month that “advances in AI and renewable energy are reshaping the (labour) market — driving an increase in demand for many technology or specialist roles while driving a decline for others, such as graphic designers.”
The managing director of the forum, Saadia Zahidi, emphasised in the comprehensive report how generative AI is changing tasks and industries in every field. When users prompt the technology, it can produce unique text, photos, and other content.
Employers anticipate the fastest loss in employment in the upcoming years for positions such as payroll clerks, executive secretaries, and postal service clerks, whether as a result of the expansion of artificial intelligence or other factors.
“The presence of both graphic designers and legal secretaries just outside the top 10 fastest-declining job roles, a first-time prediction not seen in previous editions of the Future of Jobs Report, may illustrate GenAI’s increasing capacity to perform knowledge work,” the report said.
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70% of companies to hire AI experts
On the other hand, there is a growing need for AI skills. According to the most recent poll, which was carried out last year, nearly 70 percent of businesses aim to hire new employees with the ability to build AI tools and advancements, and 62 percent plan to hire more individuals with the ability to work more effectively alongside AI.
The report ended on a positive note by stating that, “particularly given the continued importance of human-centred skills,” the main effect of technologies like generative AI on jobs may be in their ability to “augment” human skills through “human-machine collaboration,” rather than in complete replacement.
However, AI has already displaced a large number of workers. AI has been used as an excuse for layoffs by some digital companies in recent years, such as the language-learning software Duolingo and the file storage provider Dropbox.