OECD Report: 27% of Jobs at High Risk Due to AI

In a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. Up to 27% of jobs are at high risk to due AI’s impact on the labor market. The report comes from Reuters which focuses on the potential of AI automating jobs and more.

According to the 38-member bloc that includes some of the wealthiest nations, and growing economies, AI has the position to shake up the labor market. Though the impact hasn’t been as significant as some have predicted it to be, the OECD believes that we’re in the early stages of the coming AI revolution. In the near future, many fields and works can be negatively impacted.

This report is similar to what Goldman Sachs released back in March. In it, the financial firm predicted that AI would impact hundreds of millions of jobs in the future. Though the nature of the impact, positive or negative, was yet to be seen.

So how did the report categorize it as a job likely to be at risk? In the report, the Paris- based organization decides on risk by looking into 25 of the 100 skills and abilities AI experts see as being automatable. In a survey last year, the OECD found that three out of five workers had anxiety over losing their jobs to AI.

In it, the survey showed that a majority of workers felt that AI could negatively impact their ability to find a job in ten years. The survey itself covered over 5,300 workers, seven OECD member nations, and 2,000 firms spanning finance to manufacturing.

While speaking at a news conference, OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann pointed to how nations enact regulatory measures as a determining factor on how AI would affect the labor market. He said in part, “How AI will ultimately impact workers in the workplace and whether the benefits will outweigh the risks, will depend on the policy actions we take,…Governments must help workers to prepare for the changes and benefit from the opportunities AI will bring about.”