Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Revolution in the Workforce

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) will significantly transform the workforce, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey. Here are the key points:

• Generative AI will not lead to mass unemployment, but it will force 12 million workers to seek jobs in new fields.
• McKinsey’s research concludes that AI will not eliminate jobs in the long term, although it cannot definitively rule out short-term job losses.
• AI will either change the way certain jobs are done or provide an opportunity for employees in low-paying jobs to move into high-paying positions, provided they receive adequate training.
• McKinsey estimates that 12 million people will switch careers by 2030, 25% more than it projected just two years ago.
• Healthcare and STEM jobs (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are expected to grow, while demand for office support and customer service jobs, as well as in the food industry, will decrease.
• The challenge is not so much to mitigate these declines but to ensure that workers are properly trained for new roles.
• For those who remain in their current jobs, the nature of their work will change dramatically as 30% of their work hours will be automated by generative AI.
• McKinsey estimates that without generative AI, current technologies could automate roughly 22% of work hours among U.S. employees. The increase to 30% can be attributed to the ability of tools like ChatGPT, Bard, DALL-E, and others to perform tasks that require genuine expertise and even creativity.
• McKinsey’s anticipated 12 million worker reshuffle presents opportunities for some to graduate into higher-paying jobs. McKinsey’s analysis calculates losses of 1.1 million jobs paying $38,200 or less, with a 3.8 million increase in those offering salaries of $68,700 a year.
• People in the bottom 40% of wage brackets in the U.S., those who earn $38,200 or less, are up to 14 times as likely to need to change jobs.