The Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated the adoption of AI systems in industry: research carried out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) this year showed that 80% of decision-makers around the world are now planning on accelerating the automation of their work processes. The technology is expected to displace roles such as data entry clerks, accountants or factory workers. Michael Wooldridge, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, said "Certainly some jobs will be lost, and many more will be created. The difficulty is that the jobs created are not necessarily in the same place as those lost." "It is not an AI-specific problem," he continues. "Technology evolves at a rapid pace, and this is about technology skills generally. Re-training and up-skilling are issues that will unwind over the next decades."
