The McKinsey Global Institute has just released a report in which it explores, among other things, how generative AI technologies like ChatGPT may affect employment and work in America by 2030.
The report will be a relief to many as it suggests that generative AI will likely not steal most jobs—but rather it will assist employees with more mundane tasks so they can focus on more interesting and important areas of their work. This is most likely the case for a number of professions, the report found. And in those professions, generative AI could do the activities that now account for about 30% of the hours worked across the country.
Specifically, McKinsey’s report says that jobs in the following sectors could see workers have 20% to 30% of their time freed by generative AI, leaving them to do other tasks:
- Protective services
- Computer engineers
- Lawyers and judges
- Business and financial specialists
- Account managers
- Gaming entertainment workers
- Math specialists
- Engineers
- Entertainers and media workers
- Postsecondary teachers
- Community and social workers
- School teachers
- Building engineers
McKinsey’s report gives a few examples of just how generative AI could free up time by taking over more mundane tasks for some of the sectors above.
For lawyers, McKinsey says AI could search through case law looking for precedents, which gives the lawyers themselves more time to dedicate to how to apply them in legal arguments. Civil engineers can accelerate the design process by using generative AI to take building codes into account for their designs. This could lead to civil engineers making fewer errors and spending less time reworking their plans.
It’s for reasons like this that generative AI is likely to change the way people work, not replace them entirely, the report says.
“It is important to note that automation adoption is not the same as eliminating jobs,” the report reads. “Many jobs with some automatable tasks will remain, but the day-to-day nature of what people do and how they do it changes. In fact, employment demand should continue to rise in many occupations most exposed to generative AI, although perhaps at a slower rate.”
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