Within a few years, humans and machines will work alongside each other to create a so-called workplace revolution that will have significant impacts on human jobs, according to a report released this week from the World Economic Forum.
The Future of Jobs 2018 report, released Monday, predicts that by 2025, more than half of all current workplace tasks will be performed by machines, as opposed to 29% today.
But the impact of machines and algorithms on the entire workforce will result in net positive job growth, according to the report, as companies in sectors ranging from finance to hospitality and telecommunications experiment with ways to pair software, machines and artificial intelligence with human labor.
Overall the report, which surveyed chief human resources officers and top strategy executives across 300 global companies, predicted a decline of 984,000 jobs and a gain of 1.74 million jobs between now and 2022.
Nearly 50% of respondents said they expect their full-time workforce to shrink by 2022 as a result of automation. Almost 40%, though, expect to expand their workforce, and more than a quarter expect automation to create new roles in their companies, according to the report.
Evidence of that is already being seen today — and AI experts say that will continue for the foreseeable future.
“We can build a much brighter future where humans are relieved of menial work using AI capabilities,” said Andrew Ng, CEO of Landing AI and former head of Google Brain and Baidu Inc.'s AI division, in a recent interview.