AI Disruption of Tech Jobs Means Retooling a Majority of Roles

Artificial intelligence will disrupt 92% of roles across the technology and communications sector, according to an industry-led forecast first shared with Bloomberg Government.

In a report published Wednesday, technology companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google, Intel Corp., and SAP SE offer an in-depth analysis of how AI will disrupt 47 positions common across the industry.

The study found that the daily tasks completed by software, cloud, and product design engineers will be most transformed by AI, while the expectations for IT technicians and managers will be the least altered.

“It’s going to impact every single job role on some level,” said Jeff Campbell, Cisco’s chief government strategy officer, ahead of the report’s release.

The arrival of generative AI tools for consumers in 2022 and 2023, including OpenAI’s Chat GPT and Google’s Gemini, highlighted the technology’s ability to handle tasks traditionally done by white-collar employees. The technology industry wrote the report to guide for companies and governments as they assess what positions will be altered by AI and what skills employees need to learn.

The report recommends courses for employees in each of the 47 roles to learn skills industry leaders say they need to handle AI disruption. Proficiency with AI tools and skills such as data analytics and AI ethics will become more relevant across all positions, it says.

Business and management employees—which include business analysts, marketing specialists, and customer service representatives—should learn how to prompt generative AI tools and analyze data, according to the report. Manual data cleaning and scheduling tasks will become less important.

Cybersecurity employees, including ethical hackers and information security specialists, should study AI regulation and ethical use of the technology. Analyzing malware and logs manually will become less relevant skills for those roles.

The companies expect that 37% of entry-level tech roles, and 40% of mid-level roles, will be highly disrupted by AI, meaning that the vast majority of the skills required to do the job will be transformed by the technology.

The companies put together the report with the support of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is helping to lead the Biden administration’s AI initiatives.