by Xinhua writer Liu Yang
BANGKOK, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is unlikely to transform the labor market merely through mass job displacement. Instead, it is reshaping the skills employers seek, expanding what individual workers can do and opening new pathways to entrepreneurship, participants at the 2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group said.
Describing the AI wave as a "slow-moving tsunami," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that around 40 percent of jobs worldwide could be affected by AI over time -- either augmented, downgraded, or eliminated.
Divya Kirti, senior economist in the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, also cited research showing that hiring demand has fallen by about 10 percent in jobs where AI is more useful.
"But the bigger story is that we also see that employers do still want people in these jobs, even as AI has gotten much better. What has happened is that employers have started thinking about workers differently, and they now want workers that can use AI to do more," Kirti said.
The shift points to a labor market where the debate is less about whether machines can replace humans, and more about how people can work alongside AI systems.
During the meetings, one concept that took center stage was "Small AI" -- practical, affordable AI designed for specific tasks and local needs, including tools that can work on basic devices, with limited connectivity, and in local languages.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga outlined several potential applications of Small AI in agriculture and healthcare at a flagship event. He described how an illiterate woman farmer in India could use a basic 3G phone to identify crop diseases simply by pointing the device at the back of a leaf and pressing a button.
In Indonesia, he added, healthcare workers at primary care centers could use AI tools to conduct preliminary patient assessments before referring cases for remote consultation with doctors.
Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas also introduced a simple AI assistant called Nokrasip, or Whispering Birds in Thai.
Embedded in the mobile wallet applications already used by merchants to access government subsidies, the tool acts like a business advisor, helping nearly 1 million small merchants to manage stocks and work out profits, he said.
Such tools may seem distant from cutting-edge AI industries, yet they illustrate another way the technology could transform employment: rather than replacing the jobs of nurses, farmers or small-business owners, it could give them access to capabilities once available mainly to large institutions.
Participants therefore stressed the need to lower the cost of AI adoption and make tools more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises, startups and universities.
For developing economies in particular, they said, Small AI that can run on ordinary smartphones and function with limited internet connectivity could help broaden access to the benefits of the technology.
In addition to overhauling traditional occupations, AI is also giving rise to new forms of employment. Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that AI is going to blur the distinction between employee and entrepreneur, pointing to the emergence of the One-Person Company (OPC) as a new form of employment.
An OPC begins with a single founder and can gradually bring in additional people as the business grows. The model is already emerging in both developed and developing economies, he said.
Hailing the OPC as a new growth area in the labor market, Shanmugaratnam said that the government should encourage its development.
"If you look at Zhejiang Province in China, they now have a service alliance for OPCs providing a range of such services, including AI models, sources of energy, and some professional services," he said.
Still, access to technology alone will not determine who benefits from AI. Skills and training will be crucial as job requirements evolve.
Ximena Lincolao, Chile's Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, called for a shift away from the traditional view of education as a sequential process in which people study first and enter the workforce afterward.
Vocational training, apprenticeships and higher education need to be more closely connected, she said, while workers must continue updating their skills throughout their careers.
No one could yet tell precisely how many jobs AI will create or eliminate. But the emerging picture suggests that the advantages of the AI era may not be tied to any single profession.
Ultimately, the challenge is not for humans to compete with machines, but to learn how to harness the technology while preserving the qualities that remain essential to human work: judgment, creativity, communication and responsibility.
As Georgieva put it in her closing remarks in a discussion, "Get AI to do all the stuff we don't want to do and let us enjoy the things we love to do. High productivity, high standard of living, but also the dignity of being socially viable." ■
