The Industries Where Generative AI will Have the Most Impact on Jobs [Chart]

Generative AI’s effect on business will be extensive, but not every industry will see the same level or type of change, according to a study from Accenture. As seen in the chart above, 40% of working hours may be spent differently thanks to large language models and the applications built from them.

Generative Task Time

Of all industries, Accenture identified banking and insurance as most likely to see disruption in the form of automation from generative AI and related technologies. In banking, 54% of tasks were deemed to have high potential for automation based on their technical feasibility to be handled by AI. Insurance followed closely behind at 48% of tasks, with software and platforms in third at 36%. Retail, high-tech, and utilities were also highlighted as sectors where a significant share of responsibilities could shift to AI systems like ChatGPT. Conversely, industries projected to be less impacted included construction, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals.

However, the report emphasized AI will penetrate virtually every field in some capacity. The effect of LLMs on an industry can be further spliced by whether they will be automated or augmented as a result of LLMs. Automation may lead to some jobs getting entirely eliminated, while other roles will need to incorporate and adapt to working alongside LLMs. The report pegs most of the change in time spent for each industry as automation, but augmentation isn’t absent. Even those industries with the highest automation percentages will see non-negligible amounts of work time improved by LLMs. Software is at the top of that list with 21%, and insurance is tied with capital markets at 14% of tasks enhanced in some way by generative AI, but even 12% of banking tasks. A silver lining is that the report predicts many new jobs may arise to support the development and implementation of AI tools like ChatGPT in the workplace.

“Companies must reinvent work to find a path to generative AI value. Business leaders must lead the change, starting now, in job redesign, task redesign and reskilling people,” Accenture explained in the report. “Ultimately, every role in an enterprise has the potential to be reinvented, once today’s jobs are decomposed into tasks that can be automated or assisted and reimagined for a new future of human + machine work.”

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