[World] - Generative AI and The Labor Force
The Synopsis:
The Burning Glass Institute and SHRM have created a guide to aid leaders on the frontier of Generative Artificial Intelligence [GenAI] and its implications on the labor force. Generative AI will affect all categories of white-collar jobs [financial analysts, actuaries, accountants, auditors, software engineers, writers, and HR ], while blue-collar jobs [construction workers, farmers, and miners] will remain untouched. Particularly, white-collar jobs will be either automated [roles that do not require expertise or AI can do the job effectively], augmented [roles that require a lot of expertise but still can use AI to augment productivity], or transformed [roles that will be repurposed].
Example: Automated jobs would be graphic designers who would focus on contextualizing content, augmented jobs would be software engineers who would use co-pilot to enhance their code, and transformed jobs would be HR who would assume the role of a mentor or coach, while A.I. tools would onboard and do other administrative tasks.
Gen AI has caused an oversupply of labor of which companies are compelled to freeze hiring and fire workers. Although the hiring freezes and layoffs are temporary, the market would still need to adjust to the changes. In the meantime, skills would need to evolve to match the demand and expertise of Gen AI, and businesses will need to smoothen the transition of workers to Gen AI.1
The Public Commentary:
Nicolas Hieronimus, the CEO of L’Oreal, has stated that AI will probably give our workers a better work-life balance, and it is a short term job creator2:
Short term, [AI is] a job creator. Half of the hirings we've been doing over the last three years has been either related to data or to AI. So right now it's creating jobs. Mid-term, I see my teams, they're all working too much and they're desperately hoping to have some sort of solution that helps them crunch the data, come up with better PowerPoints and not waste hours doing them. There may be some industries or some type of jobs where it's going to be a bit more radical, but I see this as a real way to free time and probably get our employees to have a better work life balance.
Joe Ucuzoglu, the global CEO of Deloitte, has explained AI will make worker’s lives more meaningful and will create new jobs2:
This is going to make work more meaningful. This is going to make people more productive. There's no doubt. This is also going to take some elements that are currently done by people and allow those tasks to be performed by AI. Now in every prior wave of technological innovation, there have been far more new roles for humans created than the old ones that were destroyed. That's still the consensus base case here, that ultimately you see more net new job creation.
The Analysis:
The Burning Glass Institute and SHRM have done extensive research on Generative AI [Gen AI] and its implications in the labor force. According to their analysis, white-collar jobs are vulnerable to A.I. augmentation, transformation, or automation; though, I see the benefit of Gen AI in many of the white-collar positions. For instance, I am a blogger who writes content about A.I. ethics, governance, and policies; Gen AI could aid my overcoming of ‘writers block’, which is a term to describe a writer’s inability to write due to tiredness, ignorance, or other factors. In detail, it could provide a blueprint, template, or source(s) from which I could write for my subscribers, and it would help enhance my writing. Additionally, Gen AI would also impact blue-collar workers, such as those in retail, agriculture, and manufacturing. For example, Central Washington has tested AI robots to pick apples, due to the shortage of apple pickers3; the apple-picking robot would facilitate harvesting through decreasing the time to pick ripened apples. Nevertheless, all workers [blue-collar workers and white-collar workers] face the same uncertainties of A.I. adoption, whether it happens now or later. A.I. is not going anywhere, and there is a necessity to embrace A.I. through upskilling and understanding AI policies and laws. As we are bracing ourselves for A.I., it is important that we remain optimistic, learned, and questioning of the technologies.
Pertaining to the Public Commentary, Nicolas and Joe understand the implications of A.I. in their respective fields. I concur with the notion that new roles, called augmented roles, would be created to facilitate manual processes. However, I must note that these statements are coming from CEOs, not the employees who may be upskilled or displaced because of the A.I. adoption; the perspective(s) of both CEOs and employees may be mismatched, and although the statements of Joe and Nicholas are optimistic, it is necessary to inquire their actions, ensuring that their interests are human-employee centered.
The Endnotes:
1 SHRM and The Burning Institute, “Generative Artificial Intelligence and The Workforce”, accessed Feb 27, 2024,
2 Stuart Lauchlan, “AI and the future of work-think augmenting, not destroying, according to Sanofi and L’Oréal”, diginomica, accessed Feb 27, 2024,
3 Noah Thomas, “The Robots are coming — to pick Northwest apples”, OPB, accessed Feb 27, 2024,