How AI is transforming employment

Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised various aspects of society and our environment. With ever faster technological advances, AI is transforming the way daily tasks are performed in different sectors of the economy.   

As such, employment is one of the sectors where it is having the greatest impact. Among the main developments, this technology is introducing new professional profiles and modifying or transforming existing jobs. Against this backdrop, questions are being asked about the future of employment and how it will affect workers in the labour market.   

What are the key figures for AI in employment?  

The International Monetary Fund has recently pointed out: Artificial Intelligence will affect 40% of jobs worldwide, both replacing some and complementing and creating new ones.   

The irruption of AI in the world of work has made it easier for some tasks that previously required human intervention to be carried out more automatically. Moreover, as the same international organisation warns, compared to other automation processes experienced in past decades, the AI era is also transforming highly skilled jobs.  

The document also states that the impact of AI on the workplace will differ according to the country's level of development. It will be greater in the case of advanced economies, where up to 6 out of 10 jobs are expected to be conditioned by this technology. In the case of emerging economies, it will reach up to 40% and, in low-income countries, it will be reflected in 26% of jobs. For its part, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) also warns in its report ‘Generative AI and Jobs: A global analysis of potential effects on job quantity and quality’ that the effects of the arrival of AI in administrative positions will particularly affect women, due to the high rate of female employment in this labour sector.  

In the Spanish case, according to figures from last year, not only is the influence of AI on jobs observed, but also the difficulty of finding people with specialised training. According to the report on talent in artificial intelligence prepared by Indesia, last year 20% of job offers related to data and Artificial Intelligence were not filled due to a lack of professionals with specialisation. 

Future projections  

Although there are no reliable figures yet to see what the next few years will look like, some organisations, such as the OECD, say that we are still at an early stage in the development of AI in the labour market, but on the verge of a large-scale breakthrough. According to its ‘Employment Outlook 2023’ report, ‘business adoption of AI remains relatively low’, although it warns that ‘rapid advances, including in generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT), falling costs and the growing availability of AI-skilled workers suggest that OECD countries may be on the verge of an AI revolution’. It is worth noting that generative AI is one of the fields where open data is having a major impact. 

And what will happen in Spain? Perhaps it is still too early to point to very precise figures, but the report produced last year by Indesia already warned that Spanish industry will require more than 90,000 data and AI professionals by 2025. This same document also points out the challenges that Spanish companies will have to face, as globalisation and the intensification of remote work means that national companies are competing with international companies that also offer 100% remote employment, ‘with better salary conditions, more attractive and innovative projects and more challenging career plans’, says the report.   

What jobs is AI changing?  

Although one of the greatest fears of the arrival of this technology in the world of work is the destruction of jobs, the latest figures published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) point to a much more promising scenario. Specifically, the ILO predicts that AI will complement jobs rather than destroy them.   

There is not much unanimity on which sectors will be most affected. In its report ‘The impact of AI on the workplace: Main findings from the OECD AI surveys of employers and workers', the OECD points out that manufacturing and finance are two of the areas most affected by the irruption of Artificial Intelligence.   

On the other hand, Randstad has recently published a report on the evolution of the last two years with a vision of the future until 2033. The document points out that the most affected sectors will be jobs linked to commerce, hospitality and transport. Among those jobs that will remain largely unaffected are agriculture, livestock and fishing, associative activities, extractive industries and construction. Finally, there is a third group, which includes employment sectors in which new profiles will be created. In this case, we find programming and consultancy companies, scientific and technical companies, telecommunications and the media and publications. 

Beyond software developers, the new jobs that artificial intelligence is bringing will include everything from natural language processing experts or AI Prompt engineers (experts in asking the questions needed to get generative AI applications to deliver a specific result) to algorithm auditors or even artists.  

Ultimately, while it is too early to say exactly which types of jobs are most affected, organisations point to one thing: the greater the likelihood of automation of job-related processes, the greater the impact of AI in transforming or modifying that job profile.   

The challenges of AI in the labour market  

One of the bodies that has done most research on the challenges and impacts of AI on employment is the ILO. At the level of needs, the ILO points to the need to design policies that support an orderly, just and consultative transition. To this end, it notes that workers' voice, training and adequate social protection will be key to managing the transition. ‘Otherwise, there is a risk that only a few countries and well-prepared market participants will benefit from the new technology,’ it warns.  

For its part, the OECD outlines a series of recommendations for governments to accommodate this new employment reality, including the need to: 

• Establish concrete policies to ensure the implementation of key principles for the reliable use of AI. Through the implementation of these mechanisms, the OECD believes that the benefits that AI can bring to the workplace are harnessed, while at the same time addressing potential risks to fundamental rights and workers' well-being.   

• Create new skills, while others will change or become obsolete. To this end, he points to training, which is needed ‘both for the low-skilled and older workers, but also for the high-skilled’. Therefore, ‘governments should encourage business to provide more training, integrate AI skills into education and support diversity in the AI workforce’.   

In summary, although the figures do not yet allow us to see the full picture, several international organisations do agree that the AI revolution is coming. They also point to the need to adapt to this new scenario through internal training in companies to be able to cope with the needs posed by the technology. Finally, in governmental matters, organisations such as the ILO point out that it is necessary to ensure that the transition in the technological revolution is fair and within the margins of reliable uses of Artificial Intelligence.