There’s no way to sugarcoat it. In the upcoming years, AI is going to disrupt a lot of jobs.
At the company’s media day this week, Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at McKinsey and director of its Global Institute, stated that the technology is expected to bring about “12 million occupational transitions” between now and 2030. That roughly corresponds to the rate of job shifts we experienced during COVID.
Jobs in STEM and healthcare, for example, will expand, according to Ellingrud. According to McKinsey, four categories comprise about 85% of the employment that AI is expected to affect: administrative support, food service, sales and customer service, and production and manufacturing.
A McKinsey research co-authored by Ellingrud states that many of those positions include repetitive work, data collection, and basic data processing—tasks that might all be automated. According to the analysis, by 2030, roughly 11.8 million people in roles where demand is declining will have to find new employment.
But everyone needs to be ready for at least some adjustments to their existing position.
About thirty percent of everyone’s work will need to adjust to the changes the technology will bring to the workplace, between the widespread adoption of generative AI and what Ellingrud called “old school automation.”
