AI poses greater risks to highly educated, high earners: BOK

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The jobs of doctors, accountants, asset managers and lawyers are more likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), compared to workers in the face-to-face service industries, a central bank report said Thursday.

The alarming assessment challenges the previous belief that smart AI industrial robots and related software technologies would hurt mostly less-educated, low-income earners performing repetitive menial work.

The highly educated and high-paid groups of professionals engage in non-routine cognitive analytic work, an area that can be rapidly overtaken by data analysis-powered AI in the next 20 years. Occupations that require human interactions, network building and empathy-oriented tasks are not threatened as much, the report added. About 3.41 million, or 12 percent of all jobs, are likely to be replaced.

According to the report titled “AI and Labor Market Changes,” jobs that are at the highest risk of being replaced by AI include environment engineering technicians, sound equipment engineers, video recording and editing engineers, power generation and distribution equipment operators, locomotive and electric train drivers, water treatment plant operators, recycling machine and incinerator operators and ticket examiners.

Face-to-face service workers in the arts, sports and leisure and religious industries were at much lower risk, since their interpersonal exchanges and emotional, empathy-driven relationship building cannot be performed by AI. Among them are journalists, singers, dance instructors, fortune tellers, clergy, social and welfare workers, nongovernmental organization workers, funeral services workers and bodyguards.

Men are more likely to be replaced by AI than women, since women far outnumber men in the face-to-face service industries, the report added.

Demand for high-achieving workers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors will remain strong, the central bank said, since the underpinnings of stable long-term growth will determine the competitiveness of the national economy.

However, job training is likely to be revised to better reward interactions exclusive to human needs including social skills, teamwork building and communication skills.

“AI technology enables a convenient lifestyle and work process, but it can also have consequences such as dwindling consumer welfare and deepening of profit monopolies,” report author Oh Sam-il said. “We need to create an environment whereby AI’s advancement is monitored under proper regulations. At the end of the day, AI's benefits to society will be determined by the adaptability of workers and policy design.”