London (CNN) Massive disruptions will rock the global job market over the next five years as the economy weakens and companies drive adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence.
That finding comes from the World Economic Forum, which published a report on Sunday based on surveys of more than 800 companies.
WEF, which hosts a meeting of world leaders each year in Davos, Switzerland, found that employers expect to create 69 million new jobs and cut 83 million jobs by 2027. That will result in a net loss of 14 million jobs, equivalent to 2% of current employment.
Many factors will fuel the churn in the labor market during that period. The shift to renewable energy systems will be a powerful driver of job generation, while slower economic growth and high inflation will lead to losses.
The rush to deploy artificial intelligence, meanwhile, will have both a positive and a negative force.
Companies need new hires to help them deploy and manage AI tools. According to WEF, employment of data analysts and scientists, machine learning specialists and cybersecurity experts is expected to grow by an average of 30% by 2027.
At the same time, the proliferation of artificial intelligence will jeopardize many roles as robots replace humans in some cases. There could be 26 million fewer clerical and clerical jobs by 2027, WEF predicted. Data entry clerks and executive secretaries are expected to suffer the biggest losses.
Despite the recent buzz around tools like ChatGPT, automation has been slowly expanding in the early part of this decade. Organizations surveyed by WEF estimate that 34% of all business tasks are currently performed by machines. That is just a hair above the figure from 2020.
Expectations for the pace of future adoption have also been revised downwards. In 2020, employers expected that 47% of tasks would be automated by 2025. They now expect that number to reach 42% by 2027.
Meanwhile, companies are rethinking what skills their employees need. According to WEF, companies now value “the ability to efficiently use AI tools” more than computer programming.
