In this photo taken on Aug. 17, 2018, a customer scans the bar code of a product using retail giant Shinsegae’s mobile app at its cashier-less store in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEJONG, Jan. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Artificial intelligence (AI) will have replaced more than half of all business workforce and tasks in 20 years, a state-run think tank said Thursday.
The Korea Development Institute conducted a survey of 1,000 businesses employing more than 20 workers, both large and small, many of which expected that AI would replace more than 50 percent of the company workforce and tasks in 20 years.
The respondents believed it would take an average of 7.5 years for AI to replace 10 percent of business tasks, 9.1 years to replace 20 percent, 11.8 years for 30 percent, and 20.2 years for 50 percent or more.
Companies believed that AI technology would hit medical and health businesses the hardest (31.4 percent), followed by transportation companies (19.4 percent), communication and media firms (15.3 percent), and manufacturers and distributors (10.4 percent).
Among respondents, however, only 3.6 percent said they had incorporated AI solutions presently. These AI solutions were mostly business software with AI capabilities, rather than self-developed programs.
Most businesses currently without AI technology in place had no intention to add it to their workflow in the future. Among those that had incorporated AI solutions, only 38.9 percent had the intention to bring in additional AI solutions.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
