The rise of artificial intelligence could put 300 million jobs at risk, says a new report from Goldman Sachs. The report predicted “significant disruption” to the labour market, noting that two-third of jobs in the United States and Europe could be automated to a certain extent.
In the United States, “of those occupations which are exposed, most have a significant — but partial — share of their workload (25-50%) that can be replaced,” the report from Sunday said.
While AI could affect the labour market, it could eventually boost global GDP by as much as 7 percent. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT can create content very similar to human output and could spark a productivity boom over the next decade, the report said. And while the Goldman Sachs report says 300 million jobs could be replaced by AI, history is evidence that technological progress also creates new jobs while making some roles redundant.
The jobs most affected by AI
The Goldman Sachs report says that certain jobs could be disproportionately affected by AI. Jobs that require physical work, for example, are likely not at risk.
On the other hand, office and administrative support jobs have the highest percentage of tasks that can be automated at 46% - which puts them more at risk on being replaced by AI.
The percentage of tasks that can automated stands at 44% for legal work and 37% for architecture and engineering.
The life, physical and social sciences sector is close behind at 36%, while business and financial operations have 35% tasks that can be automated with AI.
These are numbers for the US. Data for Europe is wider but similar. The report said 24% of jobs in Europe could be automated, which is almost the same as 25% in the US.
