Workers in the finance sector are at a large risk of job disruption arising from the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), according to a new study from Statistics Canada.
In a report, the national statistical agency estimated that 31% of Canadian workers have jobs that are highly exposed to AI disruption because they involve tasks that may be replaced by AI, while another 29% are in jobs that are both exposed to AI and could benefit from the technology. The other 40% of jobs aren’t considered to be exposed to AI.
“While previous waves of technological transformation such as automation mainly affected less educated workers performing routine and manual tasks, a broader segment of the labour force could potentially be affected in an era when highly sophisticated algorithms that can model language and other AI applications increasingly excel at performing non-routine and cognitive tasks typically performed by highly educated workers,” it said.
Overall, the study estimated that 50% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher are in jobs highly exposed to and highly complementary with AI, compared with just 13% of workers with a high school diploma or less.
Similarly, more-educated workers have greater exposure to tasks that can be replaced by AI, with 36% of these workers seen as highly exposed to jobs that can be done by AI versus 25% of less-educated workers.
“In sum, 86% of highly educated workers held jobs highly exposed to AI … compared with 38% of their less educated counterparts,” the report said.
In particular, the study found that professionals in the financial and insurance sector are 100% exposed to possible AI disruption.
Additionally, it said administrative jobs in the finance industry are 83% exposed to AI, with the other 17% seen as exposed to both disruption and possible assistance from AI.
In contrast, jobs in the trades, such as construction and heavy equipment operators, and in areas such as health-care support were seen as having zero exposure to AI.
The study cautioned that higher exposure to AI doesn’t equate to a higher risk of job loss.
“There are several reasons why employers may not immediately replace humans with AI, even if it is technologically feasible to do so. These reasons include financial, legal and institutional factors,” the report said.
Separately, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a report from its economic department examining the possible impact of AI on the U.S. job market. The report found that, while many white-collar tasks may be more exposed to AI, the greater complexity of these jobs may insulate these workers from being fully replaced by AI.
Among other things, it concluded that, while “high-wage occupations are more exposed to AI, low-wage occupations are more at risk of being replaced by it.”
That research found that up to 45% of the jobs in the highest-paid quartile are exposed to AI, compared with 26% in the lowest quartile. Also, AI typically complements certain parts of high-wage jobs; when it impacts a low-wage job, it’s more likely to be able to fully replace that job.
“For example, a high-wage lawyer might use AI to help with legal research (a side skill), while a low-wage occupation in the same profession, such as a legal clerk, could be substituted by AI tools that manage their core tasks of scheduling and document preparation,” the BIS paper said. “On balance, this makes low-wage occupations more likely to be substituted by AI.”
The fact that low-wage jobs may be at greater risk of being replaced by AI “may exacerbate economic inequalities,” the report said.