According to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey, 41 percent of companies plan to reduce their workforce through automation via artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. However, 77 percent of companies plan to retrain workers to better collaborate with AI. The report points out that AI is transforming the job market, increasing demand for technical and specialized roles, but causing a decline in areas such as graphic designers, legal secretaries and postal workers. Some companies, such as Dropbox and Duolingo, have already made layoffs attributing them to AI.
More in detail according to the report, artificial intelligence skills are increasingly in demand. More than 70 percent of companies are planning to hire new workers who already have IT skills useful for designing AI tools and improvements, and 62 percent plan to recruit more people who already have the skills needed to work better together with AI.
However, the survey highlighted how generative AI (GenAI) is able to perform skilled jobs for which a background of knowledge acquired through study is usually necessary. As the report states, “Both graphic designers and legal secretaries are among the fastest declining job roles. A prediction in previous editions of the Future of Jobs Report, may illustrate GenAI’s growing ability to do knowledge-based work.” Saadia Zahidi, managing director of WEF, highlighted the role of generative AI in reshaping industries and tasks across all sectors.
In an optimistic view, the report further stated, the primary impact of technologies such as generative AI on work could even enrich and “augment” human skills through “human-machine collaboration,” rather than in the total replacement of humans in performing a work task.
