Camilla Jessen
Microsoft AI chief warns office jobs could be automated within 18 months.
A senior Microsoft executive has warned that many white-collar roles could face sweeping automation in the near future.
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s chief executive of AI, said advances in artificial intelligence may significantly reshape office-based work within the next 12 to 18 months.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Suleyman said: “White-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”
Custom AI systems
Suleyman said building AI models could soon become as accessible as producing digital content.
“Creating a new model is going to be like creating a podcast or writing a blog,” he said.
“It is going to be possible to design an AI that suits your requirements for every institutional organisation and person on the planet.”
He added that such systems must remain under human control.
“We have to reset that and make the assumption that we should only bring a system like that into the world, that we are sure we can control and operates in a subordinate way to us,” he said.
Jobs most exposed
Microsoft has identified 40 occupations it believes are most vulnerable to generative AI. They are:
- Interpreters and Translators
- Historians
- Passenger Attendants
- Sales Representatives of Services
- Writers and Authors
- Customer Service Representatives
- CNC Tool Programmers
- Telephone Operators
- Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
- Broadcast Announcers and Radio DJs
- Brokerage Clerks
- Farm and Home Management Educators
- Telemarketers
- Concierges
- Political Scientists
- News Analysts, Reporters, Journalists
- Mathematicians
- Technical Writers
- Proofreaders and Copy Markers
- Hosts and Hostesses
- Editors
- Business Teachers, Postsecondary
- Public Relations Specialists
- Demonstrators and Product Promoters
- Advertising Sales Agents
- New Accounts Clerks
- Statistical Assistants
- Counter and Rental Clerks
- Data Scientists
- Personal Financial Advisors
- Archivists
- Economics Teachers, Postsecondary
- Web Developers
- Management Analysts
- Geographers
- Models
- Market Research Analysts
- Public Safety Telecommunicators
- Switchboard Operators
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary
Global labour impact
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva warned AI would be like a “tsunami hitting the labour market”.
“We expect over the next years, in advanced economies, 60 per cent of jobs to be affected by AI, either enhanced or eliminated or transformed – 40 per cent globally,” she said.
“Tasks that are eliminated are usually what entry-level jobs do at present, so young people searching for jobs find it harder to get to a good placement.”
Sources: Financial Times, World Economic Forum, International Monetary Fund
