Global consulting leader McKinsey and Company just released a massive generative AI report. Generative AI has the potential to supercharge productivity and bring in trillions of dollars to the global economy.
McKinsey said Generative AI, like ChatGPT could boost the world economy from $2.6-$4.4 trillion dollars. This estimate is based on the use of generative AI within 63 applications analyzed by McKinsey. To put that into perspective, the entire GDP of the United Kingdom in 2021 was $3.1 trillion! This means that generative AI could increase the impact of all artificial intelligence by a whopping 15 to 40 percent. And guess what? If we factor in the embedding of generative AI into existing software, the estimate would roughly double.
About 75 percent of the value generative AI can bring falls into four major areas. Customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and R&D are the lucky recipients of this game-changing technology. McKinsey, delved into 16 different business functions and examined 63 use cases where generative AI tackles specific challenges and delivers measurable outcomes. Imagine how it can support customer interactions, create jaw-dropping content for marketing and sales, or even generate computer code based on natural-language prompts. The possibilities are endless!
Generative AI is set to rock all industry sectors! Whether it’s banking, high tech, or life sciences, the potential impact is mind-blowing. Take banking, for example. If fully implemented, generative AI could deliver an additional $200 billion to $340 billion in value annually. And that’s just the beginning! Retail and consumer packaged goods also stand to gain significantly, with a potential impact of $400 billion to $660 billion per year. Curious to know more?
Generative AI is transforming the way we work! By automating certain tasks, this technology enhances the abilities of individual workers. Imagine having more time on your hands as generative AI takes over activities that currently consume 60 to 70 percent of your workday. In fact, previous estimates suggested that technology could automate only half of your work time. But with the rise of generative AI’s natural language understanding, which is vital for work activities taking up 25 percent of total work time, the potential for automation has skyrocketed. This has a profound impact on knowledge work, particularly in occupations with higher wages and educational requirements.
The pace of workforce transformation is set to accelerate, thanks to the increasing potential for technical automation. McKinsey’s latest adoption scenarios, considering factors like technology development, economic feasibility, and diffusion timelines, indicate that between 2030 and 2060, around half of today’s work activities could be automated. That’s a midpoint estimate of 2045, roughly a decade earlier than our previous projections. Exciting, right?
Generative AI has the power to boost labor productivity across the entire economy. But to make that happen, we need to invest in supporting workers as they shift their activities or even change jobs. With generative AI, we could witness an annual labor productivity growth of 0.1 to 0.6 percent until 2040, depending on the rate of technology adoption and the redeployment of worker time into other tasks. When combined with other technologies, work automation could contribute an additional 0.2 to 3.3 percentage points to annual productivity growth. That’s massive! However, let’s not forget that workers will need assistance in acquiring new skills and some might transition into different occupations. If we manage worker transitions and address potential risks, generative AI can become a driving force behind economic growth and foster a more sustainable and inclusive world.
The era of generative AI is just beginning. Early adopters have shown us a glimpse of the technology’s remarkable benefits. However, it will take time to fully realize its potential, and leaders in business and society have their work cut out for them. We need to tackle the inherent risks associated with generative AI, determine the new skills and capabilities the workforce will need, and rethink core business processes like retraining and skill development. It’s no small feat, but it’s a challenge we’re ready to face head-on.
Read the full report created by McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-AI-the-next-productivity-frontier#introduction
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