Artificial intelligence, agriculture technologies, digital platforms and apps, e-commerce, etc. have been projected to cause significant labour market disruption, the World Economic Forum “Future of Jobs Report 2023” has revealed.
The recently released report indicated that the disruption will come with substantial proportions of companies forecasting job displacement in their organisations, offset by job growth elsewhere to result in a net positive.
According to the WEF, generative AI has received particular attention recently, with claims that 19 per cent of the workforce could have over 50 per cent of their tasks automated by AI and job losses making headlines, while others expect the technology to enhance jobs.
WEF explained that as the usage of AI and machine learning drives spurred industry transformation, it would increase the demand for AI and machine learning specialists by 40 per cent or create one million jobs.
Recent research on generative AI showed it may affect a significant proportion of total worker tasks, adding that it did not distinguish between tasks being augmented and those automated.
The research also revealed that this was most likely to affect higher-wage roles and jobs with greater barriers to entry.
“Only robots, whether humanoid or non-humanoid, are forecast to have a net negative overall impact on employment in our data, with roughly equal cohorts of companies expecting growth, displacement, and neutral impact.
“Big data analytics, climate change and environmental management technologies, and encryption and cybersecurity are expected to be the biggest drivers of job growth.
“Looking specifically at robots, Future of Jobs Survey data highlights the electronics (83 per cent), energy technology and utilities (72 per cent), and consumer goods (71 per cent) industries as likely top adopters,” the report stated.
Data from the International Federation of Robotics showed that the number of industrial robots per 10,000 workers had continued to increase rapidly over the last five years across countries. According to the federation, industrial robot density has nearly doubled over the last five years, reaching 126 robots per 10,000 workers on average.
The research further showed that regarding robots’ impact on employment, the strongest sectoral picture emerged for the adoption of non-humanoid robots, adding that while 60 per cent of companies operating in information and technology services foresaw job creation in the next five years, 60 per cent of companies operating in the production of consumer goods and the oil and gas industry foresaw job displacement.
WEF added, “The fastest-growing roles relative to their size today are driven by technology, digitalisation, and sustainability. The majority of the fastest-growing roles are technology-related roles. AI and machine learning specialists top the list of fast-growing jobs, followed by sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts, and information security analysts. Renewable energy engineers, solar energy installation, and system engineers are relatively fast-growing roles, as economies shift towards renewable energy.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution has accelerated the pace of adoption of technologies and shifted the frontier between humans and machines across sectors and geographies. Technology is altering the way we work, but also changing job content, skills in need, and which jobs are being displaced.
“Understanding how technologies will impact labour markets is crucial for determining whether people will be able to transition from declining occupations to the jobs of tomorrow. As in previous years, big data, cloud computing, and AI feature near the top of this list, with approximately 75 per cent of companies looking to adopt these technologies in the next five years.
