Agent-driven artificial intelligence could replace 11% of the US workforce

A new study conducted by researchers at MIT University suggests that agent-based artificial intelligence (AiG) could replace 11% of the active workforce in the United States.

Researchers from MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an innovative method to simulate the potential impact of artificial intelligence on US jobs, CNBC reports. This effort led to the creation of the Iceberg index, which is a digital equivalent of the national labor market. Researchers launched Project Iceberg earlier this year to simulate an AI-powered workforce alongside more than 151 million human workers.

Artificial intelligence has a great potential to replace the workforce

The MIT study based on this simulation shows that a theoretical AI-powered workforce could cover 11.7% of the US labor market right now. Also in terms of wages, the potential impact of AI could be as high as $1.2 trillion in the financial, healthcare, and professional services industries.

Project Iceberg assessed the 151 million US workforce by taking into account their skills, tasks and locations. The simulation mapped more than 32 thousand professional skills in 923 occupations and 3 thousand cities. Finally, the researchers evaluated the ability of AI agents to perform the same skills and jobs.

Of course, researchers say that the iceberg index cannot accurately predict the evolution of the work environment. But they worked with state officials to conduct a preliminary simulation of the impact of agent-based AI. Local governments provided workforce data to feed the model, and MIT researchers identified the skills workers are likely to need to relearn in the near future.

The Iceberg Index is able to describe the replacement of human jobs in a given county even down to the level of individual census blocks. In addition, the project simulates the labor market in all 50 US states and, unlike traditional assessments, does not focus only on technology hubs in coastal areas.