Yahoo Finance AI risks wiping up to 8 million jobs in the UK, new report claims
Secretarial, customer service and administrative roles are at the highest risk of being replaced by artificial intelligence, as AI threatens to wipe out up to 8 million jobs in the UK.
Back-office, entry level and part time jobs are the most likely to see workers replaced by AI, according to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Women are more likely to be in such jobs, which means they will be among the most affected, the think-tank warned. Young people are also at high risk as firms hire fewer people for entry-level jobs and introduce AI technologies instead.
“We could see jobs such as copywriters, graphic designers and personal assistants roles being heavily affected by AI,” Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan, senior research fellow at the IPPR, said.
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“The question is how we can steer technological change in a way that allows for novel job opportunities, increased productivity and economic benefits for all,” he added.
IPPR analysis of 22,000 tasks in the UK economy, covering every type of job, found that about one in 10 (11%) of tasks done by workers are already exposed to in the first wave of generative AI adoption, which is here and now.
However, this could increase to AI doing more than half (59%) of the tasks in the second wave. This would affect increasingly higher earning jobs.
The think-tank said that in a worst case scenario where all jobs at risk are actually replaced by AI, 7.9 million people will be out of a job.
In a worst case scenario of ‘here and now’ generative AI on the labour market, 1.4 million jobs are lost.
However, the report also looks at best case scenarios, where the jobs at risk are actually augmented by AI instead of replaced. Here, wage gains for workers could surge by as much as 30%.
Without government action and with companies left to their own devices, the worst-case scenario is a real possibility, the IPPR warned.
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“Over the next five years it could transform knowledge work. The question now is less whether AI can be useful, but rather how fast and in what manner employers will use it,” Carsten Jung, senior economist at the IPPR, said.
“History show that technological transition can be a boon if well managed, or can end in disruption if left to unfold without controls. Indeed, some occupations could be hard hit by generative AI, starting with back office jobs,” he added.
The IPPR is urging the government to develop a job-centric industrial strategy for AI that encourages job transitions and that would include support for green jobs, fiscal policy measures such as tax incentives to encourage job-augmentation over full displacement and regulatory change.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, said: “This research is hugely speculative. There are numerous reports which also predict AI will spark a huge creation in jobs, unlocking further growth and ramping up productivity. AI already contributes more than £3.7bn to our economy every year and we have already invested £290m since 2018 in skills and talent initiatives for the jobs of the future.
“We continue to assess the impact of AI on different sectors and ensure employers play a leading role in building robust UK skills and talent. We are also working with Innovate UK and the Alan Turing Institute to develop guidance on the core AI skills people need, which will be published later this year.”
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