Nearly half of employers plan to reduce headcount due to AI adoption

New report reveals megatrends impacting Future of Work

BY Dexter Tilo 09 Jan 2025

Four in 10 employers across the world are planning to reduce their headcount in response to artificial intelligence, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum.

The WEF's latest Future of Jobs Survey found that 41% of employers plan to downsize their workforce where AI can replicate people's work.

The findings confirm employees' fears of AI eventually replacing them in the workplace.

But the share of employers planning to downsize is still relatively lower than those who plan on reskilling and upskilling their workforce to better work alongside AI (77%).

Another 47% of employers said they plan on transitioning people whose jobs will be hit by AI to other roles in the organisation.

Impact of AI by 2030

The findings come as broadening digital access emerges as the top macrotrend that employers say will likely transform their business by 2030.

The top tech trend that businesses say will drive business transformation is AI and information processing techniques, as cited by 86% of the respondents.

"Although more generalized adoption of AI applications remains comparatively low, with only a small fraction of firms using it in 2023, adoption is growing rapidly, albeit unevenly across sectors," the report read.

"This disparity mirrors broader trends, with advanced and middle-income economies experiencing unprecedented diffusion of generative AI technologies among individual users, while low-income economies remain largely on the margins, with currently minimal use of this technology."

Future of Work

In addition to broadening digital access, other macrotrends expected to drive business transformation include:

Rising cost of living, inflation (50%)
Increased efforts to reduce carbon emissions (47%)
Increased focus on labour and social issues (46%)
Slower economic growth (42%)
Increased efforts and investments to adapt to climate change (41%)
Ageing and declining working-age populations (40%)

Overall, the shifting global trends will likely see 170 million new roles to be created, while 92 million are to be displaced by 2030, according to the WEF report.

The top largest growing jobs are expected in frontline roles, such as farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers, among others.

On the other hand, the top largest declining jobs include cashiers, administrative assistants, building caretakers, graphic designers, among others.