Indeed, in its report, notes that 29% of skills could "potentially" be replaced by AI as it continues to evolve, and if there are changes to workplaces in the future. It did not, however, put a timeline on that possibility. — Image by freepik
AI is set to cause widespread changes across a wide number of industries. Scarcely a week goes by without a new forecast on the disruptive effects the technology will have in the years to come.
Many studies have focused on professions likely to be disrupted, but a new look at AI's impact on the workforce from Indeed suggests that people could be looking at the issue through the wrong lens. Ultimately, the company says, AI's impact will come down to job skills rather than job titles.
What's more, of the over 2,800 work skills the company assessed, none were deemed "very likely" to be replaced by AI – and the majority of skills, some 68.7%, were found to be "unlikely" or "very unlikely" to be replaced, at least in the near future.
"Ultimately, the impact of GenAI on a given occupation will depend on the skills in that occupation that can or cannot be performed well by the technology, both today and in the future," the company wrote in its 2024 AI at Work report.
The report combed through the millions of job postings on Indeed to identify the most commonly requested work skills. Researchers then developed a prompt framework tasking OpenAI's GPT-4o to assess its own ability on each of those skills. Findings were validated by the human researchers and the analysis was run 15 times per skill.
Researchers looked at three abilities for each job skill: theoretical knowledge, real-world problem-solving, and physical presence.
OpenAI's tech gave itself the highest marks overall on theoretical knowledge, but admitted it was less adept at solving problems. And, as you might expect, it scored very low on physical execution of problems, making hands-on jobs (nursing, for instance) less susceptible to the tech.
AI, of course, is improving regularly. Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on his personal blog, "It is possible that we will have superintelligence (AI that's smarter than humans) in a few thousand days."
Indeed, in its report, notes that 29% of skills could "potentially" be replaced by AI as it continues to evolve, and if there are changes to workplaces in the future. It did not, however, put a timeline on that possibility.
While Indeed focused on job skills in its report, the company did amalgamate the data it gathered to show the risk to a variety of job types. Accounting occupations were among the most vulnerable, the company found, with AI "possible" or "likely" to replace humans at more than 75% of the requested skills commonly found in those job postings. Marketing and advertising occupations followed and software development positions came in third, with 71% of the job skills more likely to be replaced by technology.
Cooks, however, were the least likely to face possible replacement, followed by child care occupations, bus drivers, and nurses. (Just 39% of the skills required to be a nurse were found to be possibly or likely to be replaced by AI.)
"In the future, combined with advances in robotics, it's possible the tools will become more adept at mimicking and mastering how humans manually apply their skills," the report says.
"But as it stands today, GenAI is best suited to applying its skills to help with relatively straightforward work tasks that require only modest problem solving and, most importantly, no hands-on execution." – Inc./Tribune News Service
