Machines will do more work than humans by 2025, says the WEF

In less than a decade, most workplace tasks will be done by machines rather than humans, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest AI job forecast.

Job swap: The Future of Jobs 2018 report claims that roughly 71 percent of tasks are done by humans today, but it calls for a rapid shift in responsibilities over the next seven years. The report’s figures are extrapolated from surveys of human resource managers and corporate strategy experts. 

Net gain: The report also predicts that advances in machine learning and digital automation will eliminate 75 million jobs by 2025. But it suggests that the same technology could also generate some 133 million new roles by then. Jobs that involve design or programming tasks, critical thinking, and social intelligence will be more resistant to automation, the report claims.

Crystal balls: The report is thought-provoking and well put together. But it’s notoriously difficult to predicting this kind of economic change reliably. Indeed, as we’ve noted before, estimates regarding the number of jobs that AI will destroy (or create) tend to vary wildly.