enhance jobs.46 Only robots, whether humanoid or The human-machine frontier non-humanoid, are forecast to have a net negative overall impact on employment in our data, with roughly equal cohorts of companies expecting As businesses adopt frontier technologies, tasks growth, displacement and neutral impact. The such as information and data processing are shares of oragnizations surveyed which forecast a increasingly automated, reconfiguring labour neutral impact are not plotted. markets and changing the skills needed for work. Previous editions of the Future of Jobs Report have While respondents operating in different industries documented the shifting frontier between the work show differing preferences for technologies, there tasks performed by humans and those performed are a few industries that show much higher overall by machines and algorithms. We do so again this expectations to adopt new technologies while some year. are more cautious. The Electronics and Chemical and Advanced Materials industries are planning The human-machine frontier has shifted since the to adopt more technologies than average, while 2020 edition, which was released in the midst of the Employment Services, Insurance and Pension COVID-19 lockdowns and remote working, when Management, and Real Estate industries are the expectations for increasing automation were high. least inclined to adopt new technologies. The fraction of automated tasks has increased less than previously expected, and the horizon for future Environmental management technology is one automation is stretching further into the future than of the technologies with the most differentiated surveyed businesses previously anticipated. uptake across industries, with 93% of Oil and Gas employers expected to adopt the technology, Organizations today estimate that 34% of all followed by Chemical and Advanced Materials business-related tasks are performed by machines, (88%) and Production of Consumer Goods with the remaining 66% performed by humans. This (86%). In contrast, just 26% of Employment represents a 1% increase on the level of automation Services employers expect to adopt this estimated by respondents to the 2020 edition of technology, followed by Education and Training the Future of Jobs Survey. This pace of automation (36%) and Insurance and Pension Management contradicts expectations from respondents to the (42%). Similarly, augmented and virtual reality 2020 survey that almost half of business tasks is likely to be heavily adopted by organizations would be automated in the following five years, in Electronics (80%); Research, Design and possibly reflecting a view that machines and Business Management services (77%); and Energy algorithms have augmented human performance Technology and Utilities (75%) industries, compared rather than automating tasks in this period. Overall, to Mining and Metals (46%); Accommodation, relative to 2020, employers have revised their Food and Leisure services (42%); and Agriculture, predictions for future automation down by 5% Forestry and Fishing (30%) industries. Sectoral (from 47% automation by 2025 in 2020 to 42% data on technology adoption is also included in automation by 2027 now). Task automation in 2027 Appendix B. is expected to vary from 35% of reasoning and decision-making to 65% of information and data Looking specifically at robots, Future of Jobs processing (see Figure 2.6). Survey data highlights the Electronics (83%), Energy Technology and Utilities (72%), and Consumer The potential scope of automation and Goods (71%) industries as likely top adopters. augmentation will further expand over the next Data from the International Federation of Robotics few years, with AI techniques maturing and finding shows that the number of industrial robots per mainstream application across sectors. It remains to 10,000 workers has continued to rapidly increase be seen how technologies going through the most 47 over the last five years across countries. Industrial rapid changes, such as generative AI technology, robot density has nearly doubled over the last five may further change the make-up of automatable years, reaching 126 robots per 10,000 workers on tasks over the 2023–2027 period, with some recent average. Regarding robots’ impact on employment, studies finding that Large Language Models can the strongest sectoral picture emerges for the already automate 15% of tasks. When combined adoption of non-humanoid robots, wherein 60% with applications which can correct known issues of companies operating in the Production of with existing Large Language Models (such as Consumer Goods and the Oil and Gas industry factual inaccuracies), this share may increase to foresee job displacement, and 60% of companies 50%.48 operating in Information and Technology services foresee job creation in the next five years. Future of Jobs Report 2023 26