Lareina Yee
McKinsey commentary
Senior partner and McKinsey Global Institute director
As many companies are still in pilot and early production phases of AI use, it is not yet clear what impact AI will have on the number of jobs and nature of work. Still, even in these early days of adoption, we are seeing changes in the skills demanded for a range of jobs. Across positions like claims adjusters, digital marketers, and wealth managers, we are seeing increasing demand for AI skills; typically, this is about incorporating AI into existing roles or workflows. In terms of how AI will affect headcount, about a third of respondents say they expect their organization’s workforce to decline in size—though interestingly, a small percentage of respondents say they expect their organization’s headcount to increase, and some report headcount increases over the past year across functions as diverse as IT, supply chain, and sales. Some of these jobs will become more critical as AI adoption increases. AI success, for example, requires data readiness and MLOps. We see larger companies in particular hiring for those skills; they are twice as likely to hire roles that integrate, model, and industrialize data.