World Economic Forum: AI and robotics to add 58mn jobs by 2022

According to a report released today (Monday) by the World Economic Forum (WEF) entitled Future of Jobs 2018, automation is set to create more jobs than it destroys by 2022.

Over the next five years, a net figure of 58mn new roles are set to be created by AI and robotics, while machines are set to perform more tasks than humans in the workplace by 2025.

The report states that while 75mn jobs could be displaced by 2022, 133mn new roles are set to emerge.

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The latest edition of WEF’s report focuses on “arriving at a better understanding of new technologies, including automation and algorithms, to create new high-quality jobs and vastly improve the job quality and productivity of the existing work of human employees”.

In terms of labour division, 2025 is set to be the year machines tip the scales. In terms of hours, the 2018 figures stand at 71% being done by humans and 26% by machines, but WEF predicts this to stand at 58% to 42% in 2022 before machines take the larger share, at 52%, just seven years from now.

The report also looked at how well-equipped current workers and organisations are for the increase in automation. WEF surveyed chief human resources officers and top strategy executives from around the world (a group accounting for a collective 70% of global GDP) and found that 54% of employees of large companies will need to re-skill and up-skill in order to “fully harness the growth opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.