Effects of the Use of AI on Jobs and on the Employment Model: Limits and Risks

The digital transformation has brought fundamental changes to the content of work and the structure of jobs, from easing work tasks to replacing human work and creating new jobs. Currently, the question is to what extent the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the business environment will determine a new employment shift, to what extent it will definitively replace the workforce. In the present study, on the one hand, the current offers for the use of AI in productive processes are analyzed, whether it is the creation of products, the optimization of some services, and, on the other hand, the opportunities for the efficiency of managerial activity increase. The bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer is used and it is completed with a qualitative analysis, based on a focus group and the application of an in-depth questionnaire, which aims to identify the extent to which AI can and will replace human activity. The quantitative results of the exploratory research show us the limits, at least in the current phase of AI development, of human substitution in the production processes of goods/services or in managerial activities. The conclusions identify the role of AI as a tool to optimize work tasks for decision-making processes and facilitator of updating work content and the limits of total human replacement. We are facing with a new employment shift, different from others because it will impact the work content as such of the most jobs and, at least in this development stage of the generative AI, will assist, without final decision in processing activities or in services providing.