According to a new report, machines could already perform the majority of U.S. work hours today, accelerating job shifts across offices, warehouses, and services.
By Catholics for Catholics
In a worrisome dystopian, around the corner future, Artificial Intelligence and AI-powered robots can now replace up to 57 percent of all U.S. work hours, according to a new report.
That means half of the work hours in the country, according to The Epoch Times.
The McKinsey Global Institute report found that while the great majority of human skills will keep being relevant in an era of large-scale automation, the way people use those skills is expected to change radically.
Published on Nov. 25, McKinsey’s investigation inferred that today’s AI systems and workplace robots could automate 57 percent of U.S. work hours without any further breakthroughs in technology, provided companies redesign their workflows around automation. At current levels of capability, AI agents could perform tasks that engage 44 percent of U.S. work hours today, and robots 13 percent, the report said.
“Extending automation further would require technologies that can match a range of human capabilities currently unmatched,” McKinsey analysts said in the report. “Agents would need to interpret intention and emotion. Robots would need to master fine motor control, such as grasping delicate objects or manipulating instruments in surgery.”
About 40 percent of U.S. jobs are occupations that are made up of daily tasks that could be automated by software alone, such as administrative support, paralegal work, office roles, and certain programming jobs.
“Tasks occupying more than half of current work hours could potentially be automated, primarily by agents,” the analysts state.
The Epoch Times reported that U.S. government projections show flat or decreasing employment in several tech-exposed fields—including administrative support occupations, paralegals and legal assistants, and computer programmers—with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) citing technology, including AI, as a major factor.
“Software innovations have automated many of the tasks performed by bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks,” the BLS said in a note. “As a result, the same amount of work can be done with fewer employees, which is expected to lead to job losses over the projected decade.”
Still, McKinsey analysts said that a human laborer won’t inevitably be replaced by AI in a given job just because the machine can do it.
“Yet, that does not mean half of all jobs would disappear; many would change as specific tasks are automated, shifting what people do rather than eliminating the work itself,” they wrote.
Instead of replacing workers entirely, AI is more prone to reshape jobs by absorbing routine or time-consuming tasks while leaving humans to do higher-value work, they said. Workers would spend less time gathering information or preparing documents and more time guiding AI tools, reviewing outputs, making decisions, and handling tasks that require judgment, empathy, or improvisation.
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