Gen AI is reshaping the global workforce

While AI skills generally are accelerating across industries and geographies, we’re also seeing General Artificial Intelligence (GAI) like ChatGPT, start to make its way into the world of work. As companies and organisations incorporate these new technologies into their daily operatives, they will reshape our everyday jobs. GAI will reduce the time spent on some tasks and usher in new skills, while also raising the importance of people skills.

Almost every job requires skills that can be performed by GAI, but not every job is affected in the same way. According to research from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Research Institute, 84% of US members are in jobs that could leverage GAI to automate at least a quarter of repetitive tasks and increase productivity.

While GAI will reduce the time professionals spend on some skills like writing or data analysis, its influence isn’t limited to reducing routine work. GAI will also drive up demand for other skills, especially people and specialized skills. For example, GAI might lead a language translator to shift their focus from doing literal translations to reviewing and certifying machine-generated translations or specialising in specific legal or literary content.

Understanding GAI

GAI is a fast-growing technology with the potential to perform tasks that, in the past, only humans could do — like writing, creating content, and analysing data. New GAI tools present an opportunity to potentially lighten workloads and help professionals, like teachers, focus on the most important parts of their jobs.

To better understand this, some of the most common occupations on the platform (representing nearly 1 in 5 US members) based on LinkedIn’s data were analysed. To better understand this we examined how GAI could start to impact three occupations — teachers, software engineers, and construction specialists.

Teachers

45% of teacher skills support tasks where GAI could enable greater productivity (lesson planning, curriculum development, teacher training). More than half of a teacher’s job involves people skills such as working directly with students, which are unlikely to be replaced by GAI. Areas where teachers might benefit from GAI’s support: classroom management, differentiated instruction, and special education.

Software engineers

Most software engineers spend a lot of time writing code in different programming languages, which is why 96% of software engineers’ skills may be augmented by GAI, leading to significant productivity gains (programming, coding, and technical abilities). People skills and specialised skills complement an engineer’s technical work. For example, as software engineers spend less time writing code, they can focus more on other parts of their jobs, including those that involve Agile methodologies, Microsoft Azure, and Jira (a tool for tracking workflow progress and communicating effectively with key stakeholders), which are critical to their success.

These types of skills represent almost 3% of the skills engineers use every day. One of the key areas where software engineers might benefit from GAI’s support: communicating more effectively with technical and nontechnical audiences.

Construction specialists

Only 11% of construction specialists’ skills may be augmented by GAI (construction-related drawing, Revit software). The job largely requires specialised skills (78%), such as construction management, flooring, and construction safety. One of the key areas where construction specialists can leverage GAI: performing repetitive tasks like permit submittals.