Four in five workers believe artificial intelligence will impact their daily tasks at work, with Gen Z among the most concerned as companies increasingly rely on AI chatbots and automation, a survey conducted by Randstad showed on Tuesday.
Job vacancies requiring “AI agent” skills have surged by 1,587 per cent, Randstad said in its yearly “Workmonitor” report, with survey data suggesting that AI and automation are increasingly replacing low-complexity, transactional roles.
Randstad, one of the world’s largest recruitment agencies, surveyed 27,000 workers and 1,225 employers and covered more than 3 million job postings across 35 markets for the report.
Why it’s important
Labour markets are under immense pressure as corporations around the globe ramp up job cuts amid dimming consumer sentiment, shaken by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and aggressive foreign policy moves that have taken a wrecking ball to the rule-based world order.
AI-focused tech firms have begun replacing jobs with automation, even as most companies still await tangible returns from an exceptional investment boom in AI that will shape the business world for years to come.
Key quotes
“What we generally see amongst employees is that they are enthusiastic about AI … but they may also be sceptical in the sense that companies want what companies always want: they want to save costs and increase efficiency,” Randstad CEO Sander van ’t Noordende told Reuters.
“Gen Z is the most concerned generation, while Baby Boomers show greater self-assurance and are the least worried about AI’s impact and their ability to adapt,” the report said.
By the numbers
Nearly half of the workers interviewed fear that the nascent technology will benefit corporations more than the workforce, the data showed.
There is also a discrepancy in how employers and workers view business performance. Around 95 per cent of surveyed employers forecast growth for this year, while only 51 per cent of employees shared this optimism, according to the report.
