High-skill jobs most exposed to AI, impact still unknown – report

An employment outlook paper suggests that highly skilled professions are the most exposed to artificial intelligence, while its potential impact on employment is yet to be seen.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its latest employment report, which focuses on labor demand and widespread shortages given the ongoing high inflation and consequential fiscal policies around the world.

A key finding is included in the chapter devoted to exploring why advances in AI show no significant sign of a reduction in labor demand. Measurements of AI exposure show that the available tools have shown the most progress in areas requiring “non-routine, cognitive tasks such as information sequencing, recall, and perceptual speed”.

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The OECD states that these are key attributes of occupations requiring significant training or tertiary education. The research labeled “high-skill, white-collar jobs” as those with the most exposure to AI.

Business professionals, managers, CEOs, and science and engineering professionals are listed as the main occupations most exposed to AI capabilities. Meanwhile food preparation helpers, agricultural, forestry and fisheries labourers, cleaners and helpers have been named as the least impacted occupations by AI.

The publication also takes an in-depth look at the evidence for AI’s impact on labor markets, noting that progress in the space has been rapid, making it difficult to separate its output from that produced by humans.

The report states that the net effect of AI is unclear because while AI displaces some jobs, it may also increase labor demand by increasing productivity. AI also has the potential to create new tasks, which in part creates new jobs.

“AI will replace labor in some jobs, but it will also create new jobs for which human labor will have a competitive advantage.”

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Meanwhile, the negative effects on employment caused by AI progress are difficult to quantify. The OECD cites data that shows an increase in employment of high-skill workers compared to low-skilled workers over the past decade.

The chapter also notes that its findings on the impact at specific job levels predate the advent of larger language models such as ChatGPT, noting that generative AI may further expand the scope of tasks and jobs that can be automated. .

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the AI ​​sector has seen a surge in job seekers, with searches for “AI jobs” on Google four times higher than “crypto jobs” during peak 2021 boom.

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