A global survey conducted by Swiss staffing firm Adecco Group in collaboration with research firm Oxford Economics reveals that the use of artificial intelligence will result in a reduction of workers at thousands of companies over the next five years. The survey of 2,000 C-suite executives across 18 industries in nine countries showed that 41% of them expect to employ fewer people due to AI technology. This highlights the potential for AI and generative AI to revolutionize employment and the way people work, with AI emerging as a disruptor in the world of work.
Denis Machuel, the chief executive of Adecco Group, emphasized the importance for companies to re-skill and redeploy teams to make the most of the technological leap and avoid unnecessary upheaval. The executives surveyed included industries such as energy, retail, and automotive, representing white-collar and blue-collar jobs. Despite the potential impact of AI on the workforce, 46% of executives stated that they would redeploy employees internally if their jobs were affected by AI, and two-thirds planned to recruit people skilled in AI rather than training their existing workforce in the technology.
In contrast to the Adecco Group survey, a World Economic Forum poll conducted last year showed differing results regarding the impact of AI on jobs. While a quarter of the global companies surveyed expected AI to cause job losses, half believed that the technology would create new job opportunities. The WEF highlighted that most technologies, including AI, were expected to have a net positive impact on jobs over the next five years, with big data analytics, climate change and environmental management technologies, and encryption and cybersecurity driving job growth.
However, the potential job losses resulting from AI provide little consolation to workers who have already experienced layoffs due to AI implementation. Tech firms such as Dropbox and Duolingo have cited AI as a reason for making lay-offs in the past year. Additionally, economists at Goldman Sachs have pointed out the risk of as many as 300 million full-time jobs being lost or diminished globally due to the rise of generative AI, with white-collar workers being particularly vulnerable to AI-related job displacements. This further emphasizes the need for re-skilling and redeployment efforts to mitigate the impact of AI on the workforce.
