Edge’s new research report, Beyond routine: the role of skills, education, and technology in middle-skill occupations is published today. This research, led by Gerbrand Tholen from City St George’s, University of London, looks at middle occupations, jobs that occupy the centre of the distribution of occupations in terms of skills and income. Although there is a large body of evidence on the influence of previous IT-based technological change, it is unclear how the implementation and use of AI will impact these occupations. Our research looks at the changing nature of work for these middle occupations and how it impacts skills and education needs.
The world of work is changing rapidly as a result of new digital technologies and in particular, generative AI, which is developing faster than anyone can keep up with. Some routine and manual jobs have been particularly susceptible to change as technologies move to specialise in performing routine cognitive and non-cognitive tasks. Edge Foundation commissioned this research because we think it’s important to look closely at these roles to understand their changing nature and the changing skills needs of employees. The research looks at roles nestled in between the low-skilled and high-skilled workers and assumed to involve routine cognitive and routine manual tasks. The work involved data analysis and interviews to better understand these roles.
This report seeks to better understand the future of middle occupations by examining one of their key constituent groups: administrators. The research has found that instead of widespread job displacement, current changes often involve the transformation and redefinition of existing roles in unexpected and unpredictable ways, depending on how AI technology is implemented. This challenges some of the assumptions previously held about how the effects of AI have been progressing.
Written by
Gerbrand Tholen, Katherine Emms, Andrea Laczik