Has everyone been telling you that AI might steal your job before you even get it? Well, it’s not that simple — and a new global study shows why.
The ILO Study
A study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Poland’s National Research Institute (NASK) found that 1 in 4 jobs worldwide is potentially exposed to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). However, the report notes that transformation, not replacement, is the most likely outcome of this exposure.
According to the authors of the report titled Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure, it is the most detailed global assessment to date of how GenAI may reshape the world of work.
30,000 Occupational Tasks Studied
Discussing its methodology, the authors write that to provide a snapshot of how AI could transform occupations and employment across countries, the report combined nearly 30,000 occupational tasks with expert validation, AI-assisted scoring, and ILO-harmonised microdata.
Key findings of the study
According to the report, 25 percent of global employment falls within occupations potentially exposed to GenAI. The share of such jobs is higher in high-income countries, at 34 percent. The impact of GenAI is likely to be worse for women. In high-income countries, the report adds, jobs at the highest risk of automation make up 9.6 percent of female employment — significantly higher than the 3.5 percent of such jobs among men.
The report also states that clerical jobs face the highest exposure of all, due to GenAI’s theoretical ability to automate many of their tasks. However, the impact could also be expected across some highly digitised cognitive jobs in media, software, and finance-related occupations, as GenAI’s capabilities expand.
That said, it’s not all gloom and doom. The study notes that full job automation remains limited, since many tasks, though done more efficiently, still require human involvement.
