AI really is cutting out entry-level jobs for human workers, study claims

• Researchers have identified a drop in entry level jobs, mainly due to AI
• The drop affects manic basic roles such as admin and accountancy
• Some firms are regretting their choice to replace workers with chatbots

Stanford researchers have released a new study which validates many warnings about generative AI’s effects on the workplace, claiming the technology is having a ‘real and measurable’ impact on entry-level workers - and not in a good way.

The market has experienced a 13% drop in available jobs for young people in AI impacted fields since late 2022, making this the ‘fastest, broadest change’ seen in recent years, comparable only to the shift towards remote work during the pandemic.

The report note in positions where AI is poised to have the highest impact like software development and customer service, younger workers are increasingly unable to climb the career ladder, which risks a scenario in 10-20 years where senior leaders retire, but have an increasingly small pool of younger leaders to promote and hand their businesses over to.

Concentrated losses

Whilst the wider job market doesn’t seem to be experiencing the same level of turbulence, those which would traditionally be listed as ‘mundane’ or are easily automated are at serious risk - such as secretaries, administrative assistants, and auditors.

Whilst we are still in the relative infancy of Gen AI in the workplace, there are bound to be teething problems whilst businesses and workers get to grips with how the technology can be deployed - but research shows that in the UK many have jumped the gun - as over half of businesses that replaced workers with AI now regret their decision.

There have been high-profile walk-backs too, with an Australian bank recently forced to issue a public apology and rehire human workers after their AI replacement failed to perform.

In spite of this, OpenAI’s Sam Altman has warned GenAI could wipe out some job industries altogether, but even he argues there are still some jobs he wouldn’t trust entirely with a chatbot, noting “ChatGPT today, by the way, most of the time, can give you better – it’s like, a better diagnostician than most doctors in the world."

“Yet people still go to doctors, and I am not, like, maybe I’m a dinosaur here, but I really do not want to, like, entrust my medical fate to ChatGPT with no human doctor in the loop.”

Via Axios

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