Artificial intelligence is set to change the global workforce dramatically, and to help tackle that issue, a group of the world’s largest technology companies announced the launch of a consortium to focus on jobs most likely to be impacted by AI.

The new group, called the AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology Workforce Consortium, includes Cisco Systems Inc., IBM Corp., Accenture plc, Microsoft Corp., Google LLC, Indeed Inc., Intel Corp., Eightfold AI Inc. and SAP SE as well as six advisers. The formation of the consortium was brought about by the work of the United States-European Union Trade and Technology Council’s Talent for Growth Task Force to provide workers access to resources relevant to retraining programs and connect businesses to skilled workers.

The explosive growth of AI is already disrupting the global workforce as a transformative technology and its effects are only starting to be felt. The World Economic Forum predicts that over the next five years, transformative technologies such as AI will cause a decline of 83 million jobs but a growth of 69 million jobs to replace them.

“AI is accelerating the pace of change for the global workforce, presenting a powerful opportunity for the private sector to help upskill and reskill workers for the future,” said Francine Katsoudas, executive vice president and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco. “The mission of our newly unveiled AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium is to provide organizations with knowledge about the impact of AI on the workforce and equip workers with relevant skills.”

During its first phase, the consortium intends to evaluate the impact of AI on 56 ICT job roles and provide training recommendations for impacted jobs. These roles include 80% of the top 45 ICT job titles that represent the highest volume of postings through 2023-2024 in the U.S. and five of the largest European countries by consortium workforce members, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.

The impact of AI on job roles has already been felt throughout the industry in layoffs and hiring. The inclusion of IBM in the consortium is of particular note as the company’s Chief Executive Arvind Krishna commented in mid-2023 that hiring for non-customer-facing roles, such as human resources and accounting, would be paused or slowed over the next few years, potentially affecting 7,800 jobs. Cloud-based file-sharing company Dropbox Inc. also laid off 500 employees, or 16% of its workforce, in 2023 citing a refocus on AI job roles.

“Our research shows that virtually every job posted on Indeed today, from truck driver to physician to software engineer, will face some level of exposure to GenAI-driven change,” said Hannah Calhoon, head of AI innovation at Indeed. “The companies who empower their employees to learn new skills and gain on-the-job experience with evolving AI tools will deepen their bench of experts, boost retention and expand their pool of qualified candidates.”

With the oncoming job role disruption, consortium members have established goals regarding skills development and training programs designed to help 95 million individuals around the world within the next 10 years. Cisco plans to train 25 million people in cybersecurity skills by 2032 and IBM plans to train 30 million with digital skills by 2030, including 2 million in AI. Intel plans to train more than 30 million in AI skills for current jobs by 2030, and Microsoft said that it intends to train more than 10 million people from underserved communities by 2025 with in-demand digital skills.

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