“Generative AI affects society to the core,” is the vision of the outgoing cabinet. That vision is like today letter to parliament presented by outgoing State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Digitalization) and outgoing Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs) to the House of Representatives.

The government calls AI a so-called key technology, but also calls for obligations and rules for both companies and governments to protect people against risks of AI, including lack of transparency, privacy risks, the dangers of bias and the spread of disinformation.

According to the government, AI also leads to changes in the world of work. Many tasks are vulnerable, according to the ministers. The letter specifically names creative jobs, data analytics, legal work and office support as vulnerable to AI.

Supporting tasks, but also reducing tasks

On the other hand, generative AI can also be used to support and accelerate administrative processes, support customer services, write computer code and automate industrial processes, Van Huffelen and Adriaansens said in the letter. “This gives users more space for substantive work and thus contributes to an increased overall quality of the tasks performed.”

In their letter, Van Huffelen and Adriaansens say that generative AI “can lead to unemployment in both the short and long term.” (…) “Although new tasks and jobs will be added and not just jobs will be lost, these will not always be immediately accessible to workers who lose their jobs due to automation.” They also point out the risk that GenAI “makes tasks redundant, limits the autonomy of workers and puts pressure on the humanity of working relationships”.

Develop knowledge and skills

Given the expected exponential growth that generative AI will experience in the coming years, it is very important for the government that employees have the right knowledge and skills (training) and that they closely monitor relevant developments. This means that the government remains in close contact with fellow authorities, implementation organizations, knowledge institutes, commercial parties, public interest groups, employers, employees and citizens on this subject.

In addition, the government has asked the Social and Economic Council (SER) to map the impact of AI on labor productivity, quantity and quality of work.

Customer contact jobs in the danger zone?

In their letter, Van Huffelen and Adriaansens refrain from calculating the concrete impact on employment in certain sectors. There are currently no plans to investigate this impact in depth.

McKinsey's Kweilin Ellingrud specifically pointed out the vulnerability of customer service jobs in an article last September. According to Ellingrud, “there will probably be twelve million occupational transitions between now and 2030, 80 percent of which will be in the four professions customer service, food service, production and office support.”

Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calculated approximately that four in ten jobs will change significantly in character. In advanced economies, such as the Netherlands, even 60% of jobs are susceptible to AI. (Overheid.nl, Ziptone)

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