A recent study has shown that while the introduction of robots in companies leads to a reduction in employment, the adoption of AI actually creates new jobs. This finding contradicts the common belief that automation through AI replaces human jobs.
Jung Sora, a doctoral student, and Professor Sung Nak-il from the University of Seoul published these findings in the July 2 issue of the Bank of Korea’s Economic Research Institute’s journal ‘Economic Analysis.’ Their paper, titled ‘The Impact of Automation Technology Adoption on Employment and Wages in South Korean Companies,’ sheds light on this surprising trend.
The study analyzed data from Statistics Korea’s ‘Survey of Business Activities’ from 2017 to 2021. Results indicated that companies introducing robots saw an average employment decrease of about 2% compared to those that did not. For large companies with more than 300 employees, the impact was more pronounced, showing a 4.2% reduction in employment. Conversely, companies that adopted AI experienced a 1.6% increase in employment.
Researchers explained that robots are primarily used in production processes, directly replacing human tasks. In contrast, AI is utilized across various fields, especially in product and service development, assisting or complementing human work and thereby creating more jobs.
The top five industries with the highest robot adoption were all in manufacturing, such as machinery and equipment manufacturing, automobile and trailer manufacturing, and fabricated metal product manufacturing. On the other hand, the top five industries adopting AI, aside from medical, precision, scientific equipment, and watch manufacturing, were predominantly service-oriented sectors like computer programming, system integration and management, publishing, and finance.
The researchers concluded, “While the labor replacement effect of robots was confirmed, there was no evidence to prove the labor replacement effect of AI. Even when AI is combined with robots, the labor replacement effect is primarily centered on production processes, so AI still has the potential to create jobs.”
