McKinsey report: Generative AI could automate large swaths of your job

Despite what hundreds of Twitter threads and LinkedIn posts might tell you, nobody knows for sure how the new wave of language-generating AI could change the economy or the job market.

A recent report from McKinsey made some educated guesses based on the firm’s own data. The consultancy analyzed 63 use cases for the technology and ultimately estimated the tech could add $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion to the global economy.

These types of figures should of course be taken with a grain of salt; research reports predicted a multitrillion-dollar metaverse market before tech and media giants began divesting from the space more recently.

Nevertheless, here are some of the ways that McKinsey’s report predicts generative AI might transform the economy and workplace.

Workplace automation: The report estimates that generative AI, in addition to existing types of machine learning and other technologies, could automate tasks that take up between 60% to 70% of a typical worker’s day. Currently, around 25% of “total work time” consists of natural language-related tasks that might be handled by generative AI, according to the report.

Because of its increasing ability to handle language-related tasks, the report’s authors suggest that the tech will have a greater impact on “more-educated workers,” compared with previous waves of automation, which tended to hit occupations in the middle-wage distribution hardest.

Customer service is key: The report found that about three-quarters of generative AI’s value will be concentrated in four areas: customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and R&D. That means uses like helping customer service reps address problems, generating creative material for advertisements, and turning natural language commands into computer code.

The report’s authors wrote that the ability to instantaneously produce personalized answers to complex customer questions with a consistent brand voice and pull up relevant data about an individual are some of the ways AI could “transform” customer service.

Key use cases for banking: As an industry already transformed by predictive and analytical AI, banking stands to see changes from this next generation of automation across customer service, marketing, and risk model documentation, according to the report. Other industries ripe for transformation include retail and consumer packaged goods, where generative AI might “draft playbooks for negotiating with suppliers”; and pharmaceuticals and medical products, where the tech could help with new drug formulations and drafting legal documents, the report said.