Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on AI's impact on jobs: It's great for white-collar workers, coders
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The icy promenade at this year's World Economic Forum is littered with big-name tech companies such as Intel, Salesforce, and Qualcomm promoting an AI-fueled future.
Such activity may be foreshadowing what's to come for the global labor market as the powerful technology permeates society.
"I have found it's a real productivity increase," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in an exclusive Yahoo Finance Live interview in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday.
"Likewise, for coders, you're seeing 40%, 50% productivity improvements which means you can get programs [done] sooner. You can make them higher quality and make them better. So mostly what we'll see is that the productivity of white-collar [workers] will go up."
At this year's annual think-fest, the mood swirling around AI's impact on the labor market is inconclusive at best.
About 40% of global employment is exposed to AI, according to a new report out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday ahead of the conference.
In advanced economies, roughly 60% of jobs are exposed to AI due to the prevalence of "cognitive task" oriented jobs. Overall exposure is 40% in emerging markets and 26% in low-income countries, the IMF said.
Although many emerging markets and developing economies may experience less immediate AI-related disruption, the IMF reasons they are also ready to capitalize on AI's advantages. This could "exacerbate" the "digital divide" and "cross-country income disparity," the study concluded.
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told Yahoo Finance Live that older workers could see an outsized impact from AI's widespread adoption and may be in need of a social safety net.
"You have to be able to support those that fall off a cliff because their jobs are wiped out. We also look at who [is] most adaptable. Obviously, the younger generation, in some areas, women more adaptable, but in others less. And the older generation may need more support to catch up in this new world," Georgieva explained.
Other top minds believe the outcome of labor is uncertain but that it leans toward the negative despite the potential productivity boost.
"Lots of jobs will be lost," Harvard University's chair of international economics Kenneth Rogoff told Yahoo Finance Live at the World Economic Forum. "AI is a wildcard."
Sure seems like it.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter/X @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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