AI Will Create More Jobs Than It Steals By Year 2020, Says Gartner

From the first day of the inception of artificial intelligence, arguments have been made against it. Apart from the prediction of a Skynet invasion, a strong opposing point deals with the job creation and elimination.

In a series of posts, in the past, we’ve highlighted how AI could steal certain jobs and which sectors would be the most affected ones. But, like every argument, there’s another side to this story. In a recent report, Gartner has said that 2020 will be a crucial year. Wondering why? Let’s tell you about the same.

Job loss due to AI is temporary

The affect of AI on employment dynamics varies from industry to industry. Through 2019, the sectors like healthcare, education, and public sector would witness a growing job demand. However, manufacturing sector would be hit hard.

Starting from 2020, the job creation due to AI would move to a positive territory. By 2025, 2 million net-new jobs would be created.

Svetlana Sicular, research VP at Gartner, iterates that many important innovations of the past have seen some temporary job loss. This transition period is followed by recovery business transformation. In the longer term, apart from eliminating many existing middle- and low-level positions, AI is expected to create new jobs of management, highly skilled, as well as entry- and low-skilled variety.

In the retail sector, specifically, the owners will be able to make labor savings by curbing the repetitive and transactional jobs. However, they’d find it difficult to replace knowledgeable sales associate.

If that’s the case, why are there frequent reports of “AI stealing our jobs” surfacing from time-to-time. This is because we often confuse AI with automation. We also ignore the complementing nature of humans and AI, also called AI augmentation, which is one of the biggest benefits of AI.

Gartner also predicts that by 2022, one in five workers operating in non-routine tasks will depend on AI to complete a job. This means that now is the time to look into the long-term AI direction. By investing in AI-enabled technologies and augmenting people with AI, new industries could be created, and job creation could be boosted.