MIT-IBM Report: Early AI Adoption Saw 46 Percent Decrease in Job Tasks

IBM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted research into artificial intelligence’s impact on employment and found that the emerging technology would result in fewer tasks and more focus on work that requires “soft skills.”

MIT and IBM’s Watson AI Lab analyzed the potential applicability of machine learning in 170M online job postings from 2010 to 2017 as part of the study titled “The Future of Work: How New Technologies Are Transforming Tasks,” IBM said Wednesday.

According to the study, there was a 3.7 decrease in required work across 18.5K tasks and 46 percent less demand for tasks that are more suited for AI and machine learning.

The IBM-MIT team noted that workers were asked to perform 4.3 fewer tasks encompassing activities like scheduling and credential validation. Tasks requiring soft skills like common sense, intuition, judgment and creativity saw 2.9 fewer tasks throughout a seven-year period.

“As new technologies continue to scale within businesses and across industries, it is our responsibility as innovators to understand not only the business process implications, but also the societal impact,” said Martin Fleming, vice president and chief economist at IBM. 

IBM has supported over 1K efforts to transform human resources operations worldwide.