IMF report: 40 percent of jobs exposed to AI

Forty percent of workers globally have jobs that will be affected by artificial intelligence, warns a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mature economies — such as the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States — have even higher exposure, with more jobs requiring cognitive tasks.

The report landed on Sunday, right before the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where the rise of artificial intelligence, and generative AI in particular, will be a major talking point. Industry-leading executives like OpenAI’s Sam Altman will attend the gathering. The report’s findings are not an official IMF position.

While advanced economies have higher exposure to AI, they are also better positioned to reap its benefits, the study says.

"In advanced economies, about 60 percent of jobs are exposed to AI, due to [the] prevalence of cognitive-task-oriented jobs," the report says, adding that "of these, about half may be negatively affected by AI, while the rest could benefit from enhanced productivity through AI integration."

AI exposure is lower in emerging economies (40 percent) and low-income countries (29 percent) — but these countries lack the infrastructure and workforce to harness AI benefits, the report says.

The IMF has also created an AI-preparedness index, singling out Singapore, the U.S. and Denmark as the best-prepared countries.

Multiple EU officials have called for additional regulation that tackles the use of AI in the workplace as a key priority during the next mandate of the European Commission.

“For me, the next step would be to deal with the role of algorithms in the economy at large, especially in the world of work, especially in the way how people are managed, controlled … how the surveillance is operated,” current Jobs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit told POLITICO last May.