Additional Coverage:
- AI may hurt US jobs more than expected, McKinsey finds — but there’s a surprising upside (marketrealist.com)
AI’s Impact on US Jobs: Not a Takeover, But a Team-Up, Says New Report
Worries about artificial intelligence stealing jobs have been buzzing lately, but a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute offers a more nuanced look at how automation might actually shake up the job market. While it sounds a bit intimidating, the research suggests that instead of a mass layoff, we might be looking at a future where humans and AI work side-by-side.
McKinsey’s latest findings estimate that a whopping 57% of current U.S. work hours could already be automated, with AI potentially taking over more than 40% of U.S. jobs entirely. However, the report, aptly titled “Agents, robots, and us: Skill partnerships in the age of AI,” clarifies that this doesn’t mean jobs will vanish into thin air. Instead, the focus is on a collaborative future.
The study differentiates between physical and non-physical work, noting that non-physical tasks make up about two-thirds of U.S. work hours. While some of these demand unique human social and emotional skills, a significant portion could be handled by AI.
Consider this: activities ripe for automation currently represent around 40% of U.S. wages, spanning diverse fields like education, healthcare, business, and legal. These roles, which offer an average annual salary of $70,000, often involve tasks like drafting documents – prime candidates for AI intervention.
Even in manufacturing, 53% of work hours, such as directing automated logistics, could be fully managed by agentic AI. The report even hints at further automation as technology advances to interpret human intent and emotion.
But before you start picturing a robot uprising, the report reiterates that this doesn’t spell the end for over half of U.S. jobs.
Researchers believe that most human skills will endure, simply evolving to be applied in new ways. With 70% of skills sought by employers being relevant in both automatable and non-automatable work, human capabilities will remain crucial, albeit in adapted forms.
The AI era, according to the report, isn’t about replacing the workforce but shifting human intelligence from execution to higher-level planning and judgment. Think of the calculator: it didn’t render mathematicians obsolete, but rather freed them to tackle more complex problems.
“Integrating AI will not be a simple technology rollout but a reimagining of work itself,” the report emphasizes. “Redesigning processes, roles, skills, culture, and metrics so people, agents, and robots create more value together.”
However, the report does acknowledge a significant unknown. While previous waves of automation haven’t dampened U.S. labor demand in the long run, the impact of AI might be different. The ultimate outcome, it notes, will hinge on whether new demand, industries, and roles emerge to absorb displaced workers – a question that fell outside the scope of this particular research.