World Bank: GenAI decimation of high-skilled workers seen

The country’s pool of high-skilled workers in the services sector, such as those in finance and business management could shrink to four percent due to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), the World Bank (WB) said.

The WB recently reported premature de-professionalization could affect about 30 percent of the Filipino workforce consisting of high-skilled workers in the services sector as businesses quickly replace high-skilled workers with GenAI and demand more low-skilled workers to maximize profits.

The global institution said this could be a shared experience with other low and middle-income countries like Turkey, Bolivia, Vietnam and Mexico.

“Unlike previous waves of digital technologies, which primarily expedited routine tasks or made predictions by recognizing data patterns, GenAI’s ability to synthesize and generate ideas and content intersects with a substantial portion of tasks in white-collar occupations,” the WB said.

Highly-skilled workers in services

Due to greater awareness and adoption of GenAI in the United States, the global bank cautioned that the share of high-skilled workers in the services sector has already decreased to 6 percent from 20 percent.

“While higher income increases demand for high-skill services, advancements in any form of AI could reduce the need for white-collar workers, shifting job concentration toward low-skill services,” the WB said.

WB data showed the finance and insurance sectorsr as the most exposed to AI, followed by company and enterprise management, and information-based businesses. Those safest from AI takeover include the agriculture, accommodation and food, and construction sectors.

Human workers with advanced AI skills

Still, the global institution said human workers with more advanced AI skills can help businesses create innovative products and services and contribute to overall economic growth.

“Successful and timely AI adoption could catalyze the development of new competitive edges in the high-skill service sector or manufacturing,” the WB said.

Trabaho Para sa Bayan

Meanwhile, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said government agencies are targeting to unveil the Trabaho Para Sa Bayan (TPB) Plan 2025-2034 by the end of this year.

The TBP Plan aims to upskill Filipinos for emerging job opportunities worldwide.

“The TPB Plan will be one of the driving forces to help create at least three million new jobs by the year 2028. We look forward to the new jobs, the new sectors, the new opportunities that are waiting for the Philippines,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said at the 2024 National Employment Summit in June.