The Impact of AI on the Workplace: Evidence from OECD Case Studies of AI Implementation

This report investigates the impact of AI technologies on job quantity, skills needs, and job quality at the firm level in two sectors—finance and manufacturing—based on comparative case study research in eight OECD countries. In each country, the OECD engaged a research team to recruit firms that had implemented AI technologies and to carry out semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders able to speak to the impact of the technology on workers.

The report addresses the following subjects:

• The motivation for the case study approach, the research design, and the information gathered by the eight external research teams that contributed to the project.
• An overview of the occupations reported to have been most affected by the implementation of AI technologies.
• Evidence on how AI implementation is reported to have changed employment levels, the mechanisms by which employment levels are foreseen to adjust over time, and the occupations in which AI technologies appear to prompt job growth.
• Examples from the case studies explore the ways in which AI technologies are changing how workers perform tasks with a focus on how task changes, in turn, impact productivity.
• Exploration of how AI technologies are changing skill requirements, including needs to acquire new skills to work with AI as well as redundancies of skills following automation.
• Exploration of the ways in which AI technologies are impacting aspects of job quality with a focus on the work environment, including job content, physical safety, and wages.
• Examination of which workers appear to be disproportionately impacted by the introduction of AI technologies.
• Discussion of several factors that shape the impacts of AI technologies on employment, including worker consultation, training, and government policy and regulation.

(This report is 114 pages long and is written in English, French, and German.)

The researchers identified the following selected findings:

• AI technologies are impacting a wide range of tasks and workers. The AI applications studied suggest that AI is furthering the automation of routine tasks as AI's new capabilities enable new solutions.
• To date, the case studies suggest that employment levels have remained steady in the face of AI adoption, though there is evidence of slowed job growth.
• Robust demand for specialized AI skills is driving growth in AI-related occupations.
• Job reorganization is more prevalent than job displacement, with tasks shifting towards those in which human workers have a comparative advantage.
• The implementation of AI technologies often demands both higher skills and broadened skill sets.
• Job quality improvements associated with AI—reductions in tedium, greater worker engagement, and improved physical safety—may be its strongest endorsement from a worker perspective.
• Policies play an important role in shaping the impacts of AI technologies.

The researchers did not present any recommendations.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2023
• Author(s): Broecke, S., and Keese, M.
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Damon Jones
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies