Artificial intelligence puts 42% of jobs 'at risk,' study says

New developments in artificial intelligence and robotics put 42 per cent of Canadian workers at high risk of seeing their jobs disappear or significantly changed in the next two decades, a new report concludes. While advancing computerization has already made some jobs obsolete, the rapid development of artificial intelligence is poised to become a new "inflection point" for more dramatic job change over the next 10 to 20 years, said Sean Mullin, executive director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University. Mr. Mullin said computers are expected to take on jobs that previously required higher "cognitive skills" as new technology allows machines to learn on their own and apply their knowledge. "If that even partially comes true, we're going to see a much more fundamental restructuring of the labour force and potentially a much higher percentage of jobs at risk than I think we've seen in the past," Mr. Mullin said. The new Brookfield Institute research report examined all major job categories in Canada and applied a methodology developed in 2013 at Oxford University in Britain.