As artificial intelligence continues to take hold in the service industries, how has its use affected employment in the sector?
While it’s far too early to determine long-term trends, the New York Federal Reserve does have some new data in its regional August surveys of service and manufacturing firms, detailed by Bloomberg this week.
According to the findings, employees in the service sector — which includes legal along with finance, hospitality, and several other industries — should mostly be preparing for a glut of seminars, with more than 53% of organizations that are planning to use AI saying they would be conducting AI retraining in the next six months.
When it comes to the services workforce, 19% of the organizations planning to use AI say they will be hiring more workers in the next six months because of its use, while 12% say they’re anticipating layoffs during that time due to AI.
A group of New York Federal Reserve economists see reasons for optimism, writing: “These results are consistent with economic arguments that downplay alarmism about AI’s potential to displace workers and instead point to its potential to augment employment and fill labor shortages.”
AI and the Labor Market: Will Firms Hire, Fire, or Retrain? [Federal Reserve Bank of New York]
AI Adopters Aren’t Slashing Jobs So Far, NY Fed Survey Shows [Bloomberg]
Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with questions or comments and to connect on LinkedIn.
