41% of companies worldwide plan to reduce workforces by 2030 due to AI

Artificial intelligence is coming for your job. According to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released Wednesday, 41% of employers plan to reduce their workforce as AI takes over certain tasks.

Among hundreds of large companies surveyed globally, 77% said they aim to reskill and upskill their current employees between 2025 and 2030 to adapt to working with AI, as revealed in the WEF’s Future of Jobs Report. Unlike the 2023 edition, however, this year’s report stopped short of predicting that most new technologies, including AI, would be a “net positive” for job creation.

“Advances in AI and renewable energy are reshaping the labor market — increasing demand for many tech and specialist roles while reducing the need for others, such as graphic designers,” the WEF said in a press release ahead of its annual meeting in Davos later this month.

In the report, Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the WEF, emphasized the growing influence of generative AI in transforming industries. This technology can generate original content like text and images in response to user prompts, fundamentally altering how tasks are performed across sectors.

Postal service clerks, executive secretaries, and payroll clerks are among the jobs expected to experience the sharpest decline in coming years, driven by AI adoption and broader labor market changes.

“For the first time, graphic designers and legal secretaries appear just outside the top 10 fastest-declining job roles, reflecting generative AI’s growing ability to perform knowledge-based tasks,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, demand for AI-related skills is rising fast. Nearly 70% of companies plan to hire workers with expertise in designing AI tools and applications, while 62% intend to recruit employees who can collaborate more effectively with AI systems, according to the survey.

The report struck a cautiously optimistic tone, suggesting that AI’s primary impact on jobs might be in “augmenting” human abilities through human-machine collaboration rather than outright replacement. Human-centered skills, it argued, will remain essential.

Still, some jobs have already disappeared. In recent years, companies like Dropbox and Duolingo have cited AI advancements as a reason for cutting staff, illustrating that the shift is already well underway.