By 2022, the emerging field of robotics and artificial intelligence AI will replace the need for 75 million jobs, claims a new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Sounds terrible, but it also forecasts that in the same time period 133 million new jobs will also take birth.
In the coming four years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI Robotics will produce more jobs than they will replace; if World Economic Forum (WEF) report turns out to be true. Although it is a great news, this will put pressure on both the workers and employers. Employers will have to correctly invest in technology, and workers will need to have the right expertise.
WEF got these results by interviewing executives of 313 world’s largest companies, which is equal to interviewing more than 15 million employees working in 20 advanced and evolving markets. The four basic drivers of this prediction, as identified by the report, are AI, high-speed mobile data, the extensive adoption of big data analytics, and cloud platform. These drivers in collaboration with other developments, such as more middle class education and demand for greener worldwide economy will result in predicted changes.
“Nearly 50% of companies expect that automation will lead to some reduction in their full-time workforce by 2022, based on the job profiles of their employee base today,” the authors mention in the new WEF report. “However, 38% of businesses surveyed expect to extend their workforce to new productivity-enhancing roles, and more than a quarter expect automation to lead to the creation of new roles in their enterprise.”
The surveyed companies also claimed that they are planning to hire remote workers and contractors. They also think that there will be a big change in their current work chores.
“In 2018, an average of 71% of total task hours across the 12 industries covered in the report are performed by humans, compared to 29% by machines,” the WEF authors mention at another point in their report. “By 2022 this average is expected to have shifted to 58% task hours performed by humans and 42% by machines.”
WEF believes that job destruction because of automation will reduce to 21 percent from 31 percent by 2022. Whereas, half of current core jobs are expected to remain same by 2022, claims the authors.
54 percent of all workers will need “major” training to either improve their existing talents or gain new expertise altogether. By 2022, “everyone will need an extra 101 days of learning,” claims the WEF report. One in every four companies claim that they are not sure if they would like to retrain their current workers, and two-thirds of companies expect their workers to evolve with technology. About half, to two-thirds, of employers claimed that they will employ freelancers, temporary staff or contractors.
We may not see this report’s prediction come to fruition, as the authors of the report have themselves admitted:
“Findings described throughout the report are not foregone conclusions but trends emerging from the collective actions and investment decisions taken or envisaged by companies today.”
