Hiring Lab & World Economic Forum Joint Research Shows How Humans Will Remain an …

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently leveraged Hiring Lab’s methodology to evaluate generative AI’s capacity for substituting an AI agent for a human performing the same skill. Hiring Lab mapped 2,800 skills from Indeed’s skills taxonomy to WEF’s skills taxonomy to make the skill classifications compatible with WEF.
Results were recently included in WEF’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report.
Similar to Hiring Lab’s own research, the findings suggest that humans and human-centered skills, including empathy and problem-solving, will remain critical to the workforce of the future, even as the adoption of AI & GenAI tools grows.

Human-centered skills will remain essential in the workplace while AI and generative AI (GenAI) tools continue to evolve and as their adoption in many industries continues to rise, according to a research partnership between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Indeed Hiring Lab.

Leveraging our unique methodology for evaluating GenAI’s ability to perform in a professional setting, Hiring Lab mapped more than 2,800 skills previously identified by Indeed to WEF’s proprietary skills taxonomy to make existing skill classifications compatible. Results were recently included in WEF’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, published to coincide with the organization’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, held this year from Jan. 20-Jan. 24. The work helped inform the backbone of skills assessments found in the report and contributed to its themes of AI transformation, job creation, and upskilling/reskilling.

All 2,800+ skills were mapped onto the World Economic Forum’s Global Skills Taxonomy. Similar to prior Hiring Lab research, the WEF collaboration involved an assessment by GPT-4o of its ability to utilize skills across three areas:

Its ability to provide theoretical knowledge about a given skill.
Its problem-solving abilities related to that skill.
The need for physical presence or manual actions in performing that skill.

Ratings across each of those dimensions were then considered as part of a final assessment of the capacity for a GenAI agent to substitute a human at that skill on a five-point scale from “very low capacity,” to “low capacity,” “moderate capacity,” “high capacity,” or “very high capacity.” Zero of the more than 2,800 skills assessed were determined to exhibit “very high capacity” to be replaced by the current generation of GenAI tools, with the majority of examined skills (69%) determined to have either “very low capacity” or “low capacity” to be substituted.

The findings underscore the practical limitations of current GenAI models, which lack the physicality to perform tasks that require hands-on interaction – although advances in robotics and the integration of GenAI into robotic systems could impact this in the future. GenAI demonstrates higher substitution potential in skills that can be effectively performed by leveraging theoretical knowledge alongside digital manipulation. These include granular skills within AI and big data, such as data mining and machine learning applications. GenAI also shows strengths in reading, writing, mathematics, and multilingualism, where it can assist in summarizing complex information, drafting text, performing calculations, and translation. These findings highlight the potential of GenAI for augmenting human work through human-machine collaboration, rather than fully replacing it in most areas. Skills requiring nuanced understanding, complex problem-solving, or sensory processing show limited risk of replacement by GenAI, affirming that human oversight remains crucial even in areas where GenAI can provide assistance. For employers, these insights emphasize the need for training and upskilling initiatives focusing on both advanced prompt-writing skills and broader GenAI literacy.

Table titled “Current capacity for substitution by Generative AI, by skill group” shows the likelihood of skills to be replaced or substituted by GenAI, from “Very low capacity,” to “High capacity.” Aritifical Intelligence and Big Data, and Reading, writing, and mathematics are on the “high capacity” side of the scale, while on the “very low capacity” we find Sensory-processing abilities and Empathy and active listening.

While there is some anxiety among workers and policymakers around the potential for AI and GenAI tools to displace workers, this research and other findings from the report clearly point to a growing human presence in global workforces for years to come. In the report, WEF said it expects global net job creation of 7%, or 78 million jobs, over the next five years. One hundred seventy million new jobs are expected to be created by 2030, while 92 million could be displaced, and some sectors will see more change than others. Frontline job roles, including farm workers, delivery drivers, and construction workers – jobs where current GenAI tools often fall short – are predicted to see the largest growth in absolute terms of volume. Care roles, including nurses, social workers, and counselors, are also expected to grow significantly over the next five years, and these are also roles where GenAI tools can generally provide only limited assistance. Jobs in tech and tech-related fields – where GenAI is more apt to perform at a high level – and green energy roles are also expected to grow. Clerical workers, including cashiers, clerks, and administrative assistants, are expected to see the most significant declines in absolute number of jobs.