Workers, learners, and leaders are racing to understand and respond to the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs, skills, and the future of work. As emerging research projects significant disruptions across industries and occupations, policymakers, employers, and training providers—as well as workers and learners themselves—are looking for insights about the implications of these shifts for the future of work.  

Jobs for the Future’s (JFF) Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work, in collaboration with Intel Corporation, has released The AI-Ready Workforce, a new report offering resources to help workers, institutions, and ecosystems prepare for coming AI-driven shifts across industries and occupations.

In line with the Biden Administration’s executive order on AI calling for responsible, equitable innovation, the AI-Ready Workforce report is based on an in-depth analysis of labor market data. The report creates a framework illustrating how AI may shape occupations across industries such as manufacturing, health care, and transportation—and shows that while some tasks will be displaced by AI, uniquely human skills will continue to be very important to 78% of the top 10 highest-employment occupations in key industries. 

The AI-Ready Workforce report serves as a roadmap to understanding the impact of AI by homing in on specific tasks within different jobs. It shows how policymakers, employers, and postsecondary leaders can reshape jobs and skills development to center tasks and responsibilities that are best performed by human workers while capitalizing on the unprecedented opportunities offered by AI. 

Throughout the report, four insights emerge: 

• The nature of AI’s impact on tasks and skills is just as important as the scope. It’s important to consider not only how much of a job or specific skill will be automated, but in what ways tasks and skills will change. Some tasks may be fully automated with little human intervention, while others will always require human involvement. Understanding where AI can enhance skills and where it might reduce their importance is essential. 

• Job evolution will be gradual. AI’s impact on the workforce landscape won’t happen overnight but will depend on how jobs are currently designed. The report provides a roadmap for leaders to identify opportunities for skills development within different job categories. For example, nurses could use the automation of data-centered tasks to focus on further enhancing their caregiving skills as their roles evolve.
   
• AI is expected to elevate or augment durable or “soft” human skills across job roles and industries. The most important skills in the future are durable human skills, such as complex communication, critical thinking, strategic planning, conflict resolution, people management, and other skills that AI can augment but not fully replace. The report found that across 50 high-employment occupations in five critical industries—health care, computer and information sciences, business and sales, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics—AI is expected to elevate or augment durable skills that are at least somewhat important in all of these jobs.

• There’s a positive long-term outlook—and this report provides concrete recommendations for policymakers, employers, and education and skills providers to incorporate AI effectively and ethically. The report’s findings are optimistic about the transformative potential of AI and its long-term impact on jobs and skills. Durable human skills are important in virtually every job studied, which reinforces that abrupt job displacement is unlikely and provides a roadmap for effective skills development.  

The AI-Ready Workforce report’s insights and concrete recommendations serve as a guide for policymakers, employers, and postsecondary institutions and training organizations as they navigate the changes AI will bring to the workforce and education landscapes. 

Launched in June, the JFF Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work focuses on connecting policy with practices that are grounded in equitable applications of AI so that all learners and workers benefit. The center is intended to play a critical role in achieving JFF’s North Star goal: In 10 years, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs. For more information about the Center for Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work, please visit www.jff.org/ai.