Artificial intelligence is a “slow-moving tsunami” for the global jobs market, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on Monday — even as AI investment keeps the world economy growing at around 3% despite an energy supply shock. Speaking at the opening of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, Georgieva said the technology could augment, downgrade or eliminate about 40% of jobs globally, rising to 60% in advanced economies.
“AI, love it, hate it. It’s already here,” Georgieva said, according to Reuters. “That shift into higher gear is what is keeping the world economy growing at around 3%, despite the fact we are being dragged down by the energy supply shock.” The 3% figure came from a July IMF forecast, with an updated projection due Tuesday. But the same technology sustaining growth is absorbing routine, repetitive tasks — while job creation shifts toward lower-paying work in construction and data centers, a pattern Georgieva said was no cause for celebration.
Young workers in the crosshairs
Entry-level workers face the most immediate danger, Georgieva warned, because the routine positions that have long served as the first step on a career path are vanishing. IMF research cited by Reuters found that about 10% of US jobs already require AI skills. Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the Bangkok meetings that demand for fresh graduates was already falling in exposed sectors, while World Bank President Ajay Banga argued emerging markets could deploy smaller, locally focused AI systems to raise productivity.
Georgieva also flagged a fiscal consequence that should worry finance ministers: AI could erode government tax revenues by shifting economic gains toward owners of capital and away from workers, who have historically formed the core of the tax base. In low-income countries, exposure stands at roughly 23% — not an advantage, she cautioned, but a reflection of the technology being further away.
Growth now, reckoning later
The Fund estimates AI investment could add 0.5 to 1 percentage point to growth in advanced Asian economies and 0.2 to 0.8 points in emerging ones, with hardware exporters reaping the gains. But the benefits may not reach all workers equally — a divide the meetings’ jobs agenda will confront this week, including a presentation using millions of Asian job postings to map how AI is reshaping regional labor markets.
The warning lands amid a week of economic crosscurrents, from geopolitical gambles with market consequences to the health-policy debates shaping workforces, like new hypertension data. Georgieva’s message was that the tsunami metaphor is literal in one respect: you can see it coming. Read the Reuters report via PYMNTS and Bloomberg’s account via IndexBox.
