About a quarter of CEOs worldwide plan to lay off at least 5% of employees whose work will be performed by artificial intelligence (AI)-based software in 2024. But they also plan to hire new staff to maintain such systems.
According to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) among over 4,700 CEOs from 105 countries, about 5% of employees may lose their jobs in 2024 due to the adoption of generative AI systems in their work processes.
32% of executives surveyed said their companies implemented a range of AI-powered systems into workflows in 2023, with about a third having to change their tech strategy to integrate AI. More than half of the companies plan to improve the quality of their product or service offerings in 2024 through the use of AI systems that can enhance customer or user interactions with the brand.
In the long term, about 70% of executives believe that most of their employees will be required to develop new skills in the next three years. In 2024, about 25% of companies plan to lay off at least 5% of their staff as their duties can be performed by AI-based programs.
The areas most likely to be affected by AI technologies are:
- media and entertainment (32%);
- banking and capital markets (28%);
- insurance (25%);
- transportation and logistics (25%);
- telecommunications (25%);
- retail (24%).
The lowest reliance on AI is recorded in the engineering and construction sectors, also in metals and mining, where AI systems can replace only 12% and 14% of employees, respectively.
Notably, about 56% of executives said they will be hiring new employees in 2024 because AI-based systems require maintenance. Companies plan to partially offset layoffs with hiring.
It’s worth noting that over half of the executives who participated in the PwC survey work in organizations with annual revenues of more than $100 million.
According to Binance Research, the capitalization of blockchain projects based on AI in the period from October 2023 to January 2024 grew by an average of 185%, surpassing the growth rate of most other sectors of the crypto market.
