AI Won’t Destroy White-Collar Jobs, but It Will Change Them: Analysis

• Fears about the potential for AI-driven job losses have been escalating in recent months.
• Some white-collar roles were predicted to be some of the first on the chopping block.
• However, according to a McKinsey study, AI could enhance these jobs rather than eliminate them.

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, fears about the potential for AI-driven mass job losses have been escalating.

AI-powered tools such as chatbots, have shown an impressive ability to generate human-like content at speed.

The bots can produce everything from articles and artwork to working lines of code. The cost-saving opportunities for companies seemed obvious and have been stoking employee anxieties around job security amid a turbulent labor market.

Some CEOs have already been taking steps to incorporate AI-powered programs into daily workflows while others have been open about their plans to scale back hiring in favor of generative AI.

White-collar roles, specifically those in the legal and finance sectors, were predicted to be some of the first on the chopping block in early studies. 

These doomsday scenarios, however, may be further off than expected, if they happen at all, an analysis by McKinsey has found.

While the analysis predicted generative AI could significantly shake up the labor market, its impact on white-collar roles may be beneficial over the long term. 

The analysis found that activities that account for up to 30% of all hours worked in the US could be automated by 2030 — a workforce shift that has been accelerated by advances in generative AI.

While automation is ramping up across the board, the analysis found it was unlikely that AI would outright eliminate a significant number of jobs for legal and business professionals, as well as those in creative and STEM fields. By contrast, AI was more likely to enhance the way those employees worked, it added. 

Jobs in other categories such as office support and customer service were the ones most likely to feel the biggest effects of AI automation, according to the analysis.