In the latest white paper of the Jobs of Tomorrow series, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Accenture, presents an examination of the potential impact of large language models (LLMs) on jobs. To measure the impact of LLMs, this paper analyses over 19,000 individual tasks across 867 occupations. It assesses the potential exposure of each task to LLM adoption and classifies them as tasks with high potential for automation, high potential for augmentation, low potential for either, or unaffected. The paper also provides an overview of new roles that are emerging due to the adoption of LLMs.
As advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) continue at an unprecedented pace, large language models (LLMs) are emerging as transformative tools with the potential to redefine the job landscape. The recent advancements in these tools, like GitHub’s Copilot, Midjourney and ChatGPT, are expected to cause significant shifts in global economies and labour markets. These particular technological advancements coincide with a period of considerable labour market upheaval from economic, geopolitical, green transition and technological forces. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 predicts that 23% of global jobs will change in the next five years due to industry transformation, including through artificial intelligence and other text, image and voice processing technologies.
This white paper provides a structured analysis of the potential direct, near-term impacts of LLMs on jobs. With 62% of total work time involving languagebased tasks,1 the widespread adoption of LLMs, such as ChatGPT, could significantly impact a broad spectrum of job roles.