While sluggish economic growth, inflation, and ongoing concerns about supply chains remain the biggest threats to the job market, a recent report from the World Economic Forum identifies Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a leading driver of labor market disruption over the next five years.
The Future of Jobs Report 2023, published on April 30, doesn’t take a pessimistic view of AI, even though it predicts that new technologies could eliminate more than 26 million administrative and record-keeping jobs in the next five years.
Instead, the WEF expects that as 75 percent of the 800+ companies surveyed adopt new AI capabilities, the overall impact will be positive. New roles in big data analytics, cybersecurity, and business operations are expected to emerge as a result.
So while clerical jobs may decline in the short term as AI takes over certain tasks, researchers predict that new skills and work methods will ultimately open up fresh job opportunities.
Accelerating the global rollout of cleantech
The study also finds that AI is expected to accelerate cleantech adoption and bring supply chains back home—a top legislative priority in both the United States and Canada in recent years.
“Among the major trends identified, businesses expect the strongest net job creation to come from investments that support the green transition, broader adoption of ESG standards, and more localized supply chains—even if some jobs are displaced in the process,” the report notes.
While the numbers show that business leaders are still figuring out just how much ESG will drive innovation and new ventures, the pace of change in the cleantech sector is already fast.
For example, last year the US passed two landmark laws—the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act—which together inject $400 billion into the country’s clean technology supply chain. Cleantech investments were also a key part of Canada’s recent 2023 budget, offering a range of tax credits for green energy production over the next five years.
Since August 2022, these incentives have already attracted more than $200 billion in private investment into US cleantech and supply chain reshoring projects.
Automation is being adopted more slowly than expected
Even as governments push hard to encourage new technologies, companies are adopting AI more slowly than the WEF originally predicted, according to the study.
Companies surveyed estimate that 34 percent of all business tasks are now performed by machines, compared to 66 percent by humans. That’s just a 1 percent increase in automation since the WEF’s 2020 survey—far below expectations that nearly half (47 percent) of business tasks would be automated by 2025.
Overall, about half of organizations surveyed expect AI and automation to actually boost job growth, while only a quarter anticipate job losses due to AI.
A new focus for innovative startups
While AI is often portrayed as a threat, these latest findings should be encouraging for startup founders and forward-thinking business leaders. The study shows there’s strong demand for new solutions—not just in emerging sectors like cleantech, but also for automating routine business tasks that are still done manually today.
That’s the same mindset we have at Boast AI. By integrating with leading financial and engineering platforms, our AI-powered technology streamlines the tax claim process and gives R&D teams an intelligent platform to optimize their product roadmap.
Want to find out how your startup could qualify for innovation funding by embracing new technology? Book a call with our team today.
