Generative AI likely to have profound impact on the workforce

The recent emergence of ChatGPT is making employees all over the world jittery over the prospect of losing their jobs to generative AI tools, which can purportedly perform tasks as efficiently as their human counterparts.

A recent report by Goldman Sachs is unlikely to assuage those fears, with the investment bank and financial services company predicting that 300 million jobs could potentially be impacted by generative AI technology.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong and Japan were identified as the two countries most likely to be impacted by AI. Israel, Sweden, and the US make up the five countries identified as the most likely to be impacted by AI.

However, Goldman Sachs was quick to point out that automation has tended to create new jobs, and that new occupations that have been brought about from innovative technology have accounted for most growth in employment.

“Although the impact of AI on the labour market is likely to be significant, most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are thus more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI,” the report by the bank wrote.

Collectively, the reduction in labour cost, the new jobs and higher productivity of employees who keep their jobs could lead to a productivity boom that raises annual global GDP by 7% over a 10-year period, Goldman Sachs added.