Approximately one-third of the activities in 60 percent of all jobs could be automated, according to research recently reported by the Harvard Business Review. For CEOs, about 25 percent of their time is currently spent on activities that could be automated, such as analyzing reports and data to inform decisions.
Researchers from McKinsey & Co. analyzed more than 2,000 workplace activities across 800 occupations to deduce their findings.
The potential of automation is broader now than in the past because technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning are now able to accomplish cognitive capabilities in addition to physical ones, such as lip reading and driving, according to the report.
The anxiety that has surrounded automation largely centers on technology's ability to displace jobs. However, as companies increasingly deploy automotive tools, it is important to focus efforts on equipping people with the necessary skills to succeed in the workforce of tomorrow, such as being able to interact more closely with machines in the workplace, according to the report.