OECD: 27% of Jobs Could Be Easily Automated
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the workplace.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 27% of jobs in the organization’s 38 member countries rely on skills that could be easily automated in the coming AI revolution, Reuters reported Tuesday (July 11).
The jobs most at risk are those that involve more than 25 of the 100 skills that can most easily be automated by AI, according to the report.
Beyond that, 3 out of out 5 workers fear that their jobs could be lost to AI over the next 10 years, the report said. At the same time, two-thirds of those already working with automation said that it had made their jobs less dangerous or tedious.
“How AI will ultimately impact workers in the workplace and whether the benefits will outweigh the risks, will depend on the policy actions we take,” Mathias Cormann, secretary general of the OECD, said during a press conference, according to the report. “Governments must help workers prepare for the changes and benefit from the opportunities AI will bring about.”
It was reported in March that Goldman Sachs found that automation could impact 25% of jobs in the U.S. and Europe, with attorneys and administrative workers at the highest risk of job loss.
According to the Goldman Sachs report, about two-thirds of the jobs in those regions are exposed to some level of AI automation. In these cases, most of these workers would see less than half their tasks automated and could probably keep their jobs, with time freed up for other work-related activities.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News in May that the technology company will freeze or slow hiring for around 26,000 back-office roles that AI could someday do.
“I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period,” Krishna said.
Bloomberg noted that would translate to around 7,800 jobs and reported that an IBM spokesperson said the company would reach that number in part by not hiring for vacant roles.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang approached the topic of AI and jobs from another angle, saying in May during a commencement address that workers must embrace AI or get left behind.
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