Artificial Intelligence and Its Effect on the Job Market

By: Lilease Waldron

Nearly 4 out of 10 U.S. workers are worried AI may make some, or all, of their job duties obsolete in the future, according to an American Psychological Association report.

AI may not be a new concept, but its rapid development and newfound versatility certainly are, inciting fear among many individuals who are left wondering how AI will impact the job market in future years.

Worry about workforce disruption is widespread, grabbing the attention of world leaders and what they can do to monitor AI’s swift advancement and ensure citizens can both trust the technology and use it to their benefit.

As of October 30th of this year, President Biden issued an executive order for safe and secure Artificial Intelligence use, establishing new standards to protect Americans. As part of the executive order, Biden requested the creation of guiding principles, to prevent employers from under-compensating, unfairly evaluating, and impinging on the rights and accessibility of their workers.

Biden also requested a report on how the labor market may be impacted in the future, and within it, wants to identify options to help support workers who may face job loss or otherwise. The guiding principles along with this report are asked to be completed less than a year, or 270 days, after the order was published.

While it’s critical to monitor the growth and overall safety of Artificial Intelligence, a lot of development factors are circumstantial. This includes AI’s future capabilities and timeline, the nature of a given job and its performance, and general economic changes.

Based on previous forecasts from 2020, the World Economic Forum noted that by 2025, AI could diminish 85 million jobs globally and generate 97 million more. Those numbers may seem daunting due to the uncertainty, however, America has previously faced similar circumstances.

Throughout the last century, job elimination from developing automation has been counterbalanced by the creation of new jobs. Those newfound jobs encouraged employment growth and productivity, and the job market is projected to repeat the same cycle with AI as the driving force.

Generally, it seems that AI will be more of a help and assist with tasks, rather than completely overtake current careers. The issue lies with the fact that AI’s projected effect hinges on various factors, making it difficult to accurately predict the weight and timing of its impact.

In navigating this uncertainty, individuals are encouraged to focus on developing skills and comfortability with AI tools and trust that the future will hold promise.