Leveraging Generative AI for Job Augmentation and Workforce Productivity 2024

GenAI’s potential for promoting job augmentation and workforce productivity1 Like other recent advances in automation and AI technologies, the rise of GenAI has led to concerns about possible job displacement. This apprehension is partly rooted in the technical potential of the technology itself and partly in skepticism about employers’ and governments’ ability to support individuals through AI-induced job disruptions. 3 One recent survey indicated that 47% of employees who had used GenAI expressed concerns that it may affect the nature of their work in a negative way. 4 Research examining the potential impact of GenAI on jobs commonly operates on the premise that job roles and occupations are composed of various tasks, some of which may be susceptible to varying degrees of automation by GenAI. For instance, tasks that are repetitive or routine are more exposed to automation than those requiring significant human interaction. While a wide range of tasks may be fully automated by GenAI, research to date has found very few examples of jobs that could be displaced in this way in their entirety. 5 More frequently, GenAI may partially automate some tasks of a job role but simultaneously improve human workers’ ability to perform other tasks. In line with recent research, this paper refers to this process as job augmentation (see Box 1 and Fig. 1). 6 As GenAI technologies and labour markets continue to evolve, it is likely that some job roles may become more fully automated while others may be further augmented in the future. In similar ways to earlier industrial transformations, both job automation and job augmentation may be expected to lead to additional job creation – both directly, creating wholly new jobs in various fields, 7 and indirectly through macroeconomic spillover effects from increased productivity and additional economic value creation. The focus of this report is on the immediate term and in putting into place enabling conditions for job augmentation now and in the next years.This section provides an overview of the debate about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the workforce and its potential for promoting job augmentation and productivity growth. It also highlights current expectations and assessments surrounding GenAI as well as barriers to its more widespread workforce adoption, two years after the public launch of one of the most prominent large language models (LLMs). By leveraging natural language processing technology, GenAI enables users to interact with it as though they were conversing with a human, reducing barriers to usage and the need for specialized technical knowledge. Since the public launch of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022, and several other prominent LLMs shortly thereafter, public interest in GenAI has surged, raising expectations about its potential to transform the global labour market. According to the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs survey, within the next five years, employers expect a substantial number of jobs to be reshaped due to GenAI advancements 1, potentially affecting up to 40% of total global working hours.2 This first section of the report will review the current state of the debate on GenAI’s potential, with a particular focus on job augmentation, workforce productivity growth and barriers to the technology’s more widespread workforce adoption. GenAI and job augmentation 1.1 7