Artificial Intelligence and Work of the Future: Work Displacement, Persisting Needs, and Emerging Fields

This report makes a qualitative prediction of artificial intelligence’s impact on professional work, assuming society will move towards full adoption of the technology. Based on persisting and emerging societal needs, we classify work, both existing and to be created, into six work functions. They are Innovation, Technology Infrastructure, Technology-Human Interpretation, Technology Implementation, Human Implementation, and Humanitarian Service. Occupations and roles in the future will consist of one or more of these work functions.

The analysis suggests a future with probable disruption but also hope, highlighting the need for collective political action to shape government spending and public policy. We predict society will have medium-to-high needs for most work functions. But one work function – Technology Implementation – is most susceptible to AI-driven automation. Solving well-defined problems with verifiable results for quality control is part of most professional work. So, its automation will almost certainly cause widespread disruption to the professional workforce.

However, disruption does not necessarily mean lasting high under- or un-employment. The societal need for most of the other work functions is likely to enjoy steady growth. It’s unclear to what extent can the societal need be translated into labor market demand with sufficient remuneration to make up for the displaced work opportunities. But two particularly promising areas of job creation are Human Implementation and Humanitarian Service. If government and market spending can be redirected to create jobs in these functions, the woes of labor force restructuring will likely be effectively eased.