The World Economic Forum has released its bi-annual survey of what employers around the world expect their businesses to look like in the future and much of the attention is on generative AI. And while the majority (77%) expect to help train their existing staff to work with AI, 41% say they expect to reduce the number of staff they employ as AI automates in many work tasks.

The survey included 1,000 employers worldwide, covering more than 14 million workers in 22 different industry clusters, according to new report. One of the major problems that emerged from the survey was that employers believed that many of their workers did not have the skills needed to do their jobs as technology improved.

“AI and big data topped the list of fastest-growing skills, closely followed by networks and cybersecurity as well as technology literacy,” according to the report. “The completion of these skills related to technology, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, together with curiosity and lifelong learning, are also expected to continue to increase in importance during the 2025-2030.”

The report appears to be bad news for graphic designers and legal secretaries, two jobs that employers will apparently need less of in the future, likely due to AI.

“The presence of Graphic Designers and Legal Secretaries just outside the top 10 fastest shrinking job roles, a first-time forecast not seen in previous editions of the Future of Work Report, may illustrate the growing capacity of GenAI to perform knowledge work,” the report said.

Generative artificial intelligence tools are now able to create elaborate graphics with just a few text prompts, although the technology is controversial because it is little more than a plagiarism machine.

“The decline in employment in both roles is seen to be driven by AI and information processing technologies as well as by the expansion of digital access. This is a big change from the 2023 edition of the report, when the Graphic Designer is considered a moderately growing occupation and Legal Secretaries do not show the expected job growth/reduction list,” the report continued.

Employers say they believe attracting employees will include an emphasis on health and wellness, a somewhat nebulous category to begin with, but surely, a sentiment widely understood in the US, given our basic broken health care system. The US is the only wealthy country in the world that has not achieved universal health care coverage and having health insurance is largely tied to having a job.

The good news? The survey predicts a net growth in the number of jobs created over the next five years, even with the advancement of AI.

“Extrapolating from the predictions shared by the respondents of the Future of Jobs Survey, the current trends during the 2025 to 2030 period of creation and destruction due to structural changes in the labor market amount to 22% of total employment today,” the report said.

“It is expected to contain new jobs equal to 14% of total employment today, amounting to 170 million jobs,” the report continued. “However, this growth is expected to be offset by the displacement of the equivalent of 8% (or 92 million) of current jobs, resulting in a net growth of 7% of total employment, or 78 million jobs .”

The report highlights that although technology is expected to help productivity around the world, the people using that technology are expected to be more productive.

“Importantly, this analysis only compares the 2025 and 2030 proportions of the total work delivery attributed to human employees, technology or collaboration between the two, respectively, and does not take into account potential changes or the absolute value of work tasks (output) completed,” the report said.

“In other words, machines and humans may be significantly more productive in 2030—doing more or higher-value tasks in the same or less time than they could in 2025—so even what concerns about human running. from things to do’ because of automation can be mistaken.”

That, of course, is little consolation to graphic designers. But hopefully this will be true for other jobs, especially since AI has proven to be incredibly dumb and requires a lot of babysitting to make sure it doesn’t mess up any number of tasks.