The impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs: an industry perspective

Purpose This paper aims to explore the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed rapid review guidelines. The authors collected industry and government reports published prior and up to August 2017 in Google and Google Scholar using combination of key words: “job automation” or “work automation” with technology keywords: “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning,” etc. In total, 11 were included in this research. Findings The use of AI technologies will impact jobs in the near future as some job tasks are automated. AI is likely to substitute both, routine and nonroutine tasks. It is expected that humans and robots would work together in ways never imaginable. Changes in employability skills are expected. Because of the magnitude of these impacts on jobs, consulted reports call for concerted solutions that go beyond organizations’ and industry’s boundaries to include other relevant stakeholders. Moreover, organizations will have to rethink their human resource (HR) function to realign its expertise to the reality of AI. Practical implications In this context, the HR function will have to understand the dynamics that generate the impacts of these technologies in a workplace, to anticipate changes and actively contribute to creating an organizational environment that will facilitate the collaboration between human workers and complex digital agents, while ensuring compliance with labor and employment laws and supporting strategic organizational objectives. Originality/value This paper contributes to the debate on ongoing concerns by providing a synthesis of relevant professional literature.