Will AI Replace Human Labor? Experts: Jobs Will Disappear, Transform, and Emerge
At a sub-forum of the Shanghai Forum 2026, experts noted that while repetitive jobs will be replaced by AI, new AI-related roles will emerge. AI won't replace humans directly, but workers who master AI skills will replace those who don't.
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- 📰 Published: April 24, 2026 at 21:21
- 🔍 Collected: April 24, 2026 at 21:32 (10 min after Published)
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(Central News Agency reporter Li Ya-wen, Shanghai, 24th) A sub-forum of the Shanghai Forum 2026 explored how artificial intelligence (AI) affects the labor market. Experts believe that job vacancies will face disappearance, transformation, and emergence, and highly repetitive jobs will inevitably be replaced. AI will not directly replace humans, but people who cannot use it or use it poorly will easily be replaced.
The Shanghai Forum 2026 sub-forum was held today at the Hyatt on the Bund in North Bund, with the theme 'Labor Market Transformation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - New Challenges for China and the World.' Multiple experts and scholars attended to discuss.
Liao Fangli, a special researcher at the China Development Institute (Shenzhen), stated at the meeting that AI's impact on the job market is not simply job replacement; there will be a 'trilogy' of disappearance, transformation, and emergence. Highly repetitive job types will inevitably disappear, such as cashiers, basic customer service, bank tellers, etc., as these jobs are easy to train AI to replace.
She said that AI also brings job transformation, which will be the part with the largest impact proportion. With AI assistance, job skills are updated and upgraded. For example, engineers make AI a work partner, and doctors use AI to assist in medical treatment, overall increasing work efficiency. These workers also enhance their workplace competitiveness by using AI.
'The third part is actually AI-native jobs, which is not rare anymore,' Liao Fangli mentioned. In recent years, many emerging AI-related job vacancies have appeared, such as AI trainers, AI ethics experts, AI product managers, etc. AI-related job vacancies will be a very new field with a huge talent gap.
Liao Fangli believes that jobs will not disappear; they will shift. People who master AI skills will replace those who cannot use AI. She suggests that white-collar workers cultivate AI skills to make AI a work partner to achieve purposes like efficiency improvement and knowledge management. After transferring repetitive work to AI for execution, they can focus on high-value tasks and cultivate critical thinking.
She added that blue-collar workers will also have more possibilities due to AI. Urgent, difficult, and dangerous jobs can be handed over to AI. In customer service jobs like catering and beauty, there will be more space and time for human-to-human interaction and care. 'AI can replace skills, but it cannot replace humanity'; 'Technology makes skills cheap, but it makes humanity precious.'
Zhang Dandan, a professor of economics at Peking University, stated at the meeting that the disappearance, replacement, and creation of jobs brought by technological advancement are inevitable. However, the impact of this wave of AI on the labor market is indeed somewhat different. AI's ability to replace human cognition and its faster deployment speed are two major characteristics.
She explained that generative AI can directly replace human cognitive abilities, and more and more intelligent work can be replaced by AI. Furthermore, the deployment speed of AI is very high. In the past, industrialization and production line automation would slowly advance into factories and production lines. Now, when an AI model is launched, it can immediately exert influence and affect a certain skill group of workers in a short time.
'So what we have to ask is whether the replacement speed of employment (affected by AI) will be faster than previous technological advancements,' Zhang Dandan emphasized. Before answering this question, we must first measure what kind of impact AI has on the labor market, which is indeed not an easy task. Currently, there are different research methods exploring such issues.
Summarizing past research, she pointed out that AI theoretically poses a high exposure risk to white-collar and cognitive work. The 'exposure index' represents the potential possibility of a profession being affected by AI, which does not equal absolute occurrence. Currently, the deep use of AI in enterprises is still insufficient, and it has almost no major impact on the labor force currently in employment. The current situation is that the help AI brings to humans is far greater than the risk of replacement.
Zhang Dandan emphasized that the large-scale, real impact of AI technology on the employment structure has not yet fully occurred. We are currently still in a window period. How to prepare during this stage and provide resources for training and skill optimization to those who might be impacted will depend on the rollout of public policies. (Editor: Yang Sheng-ju) 1150424
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The Shanghai Forum 2026 sub-forum was held today at the Hyatt on the Bund in North Bund, with the theme 'Labor Market Transformation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - New Challenges for China and the World.' Multiple experts and scholars attended to discuss.
Liao Fangli, a special researcher at the China Development Institute (Shenzhen), stated at the meeting that AI's impact on the job market is not simply job replacement; there will be a 'trilogy' of disappearance, transformation, and emergence. Highly repetitive job types will inevitably disappear, such as cashiers, basic customer service, bank tellers, etc., as these jobs are easy to train AI to replace.
She said that AI also brings job transformation, which will be the part with the largest impact proportion. With AI assistance, job skills are updated and upgraded. For example, engineers make AI a work partner, and doctors use AI to assist in medical treatment, overall increasing work efficiency. These workers also enhance their workplace competitiveness by using AI.
'The third part is actually AI-native jobs, which is not rare anymore,' Liao Fangli mentioned. In recent years, many emerging AI-related job vacancies have appeared, such as AI trainers, AI ethics experts, AI product managers, etc. AI-related job vacancies will be a very new field with a huge talent gap.
Liao Fangli believes that jobs will not disappear; they will shift. People who master AI skills will replace those who cannot use AI. She suggests that white-collar workers cultivate AI skills to make AI a work partner to achieve purposes like efficiency improvement and knowledge management. After transferring repetitive work to AI for execution, they can focus on high-value tasks and cultivate critical thinking.
She added that blue-collar workers will also have more possibilities due to AI. Urgent, difficult, and dangerous jobs can be handed over to AI. In customer service jobs like catering and beauty, there will be more space and time for human-to-human interaction and care. 'AI can replace skills, but it cannot replace humanity'; 'Technology makes skills cheap, but it makes humanity precious.'
Zhang Dandan, a professor of economics at Peking University, stated at the meeting that the disappearance, replacement, and creation of jobs brought by technological advancement are inevitable. However, the impact of this wave of AI on the labor market is indeed somewhat different. AI's ability to replace human cognition and its faster deployment speed are two major characteristics.
She explained that generative AI can directly replace human cognitive abilities, and more and more intelligent work can be replaced by AI. Furthermore, the deployment speed of AI is very high. In the past, industrialization and production line automation would slowly advance into factories and production lines. Now, when an AI model is launched, it can immediately exert influence and affect a certain skill group of workers in a short time.
'So what we have to ask is whether the replacement speed of employment (affected by AI) will be faster than previous technological advancements,' Zhang Dandan emphasized. Before answering this question, we must first measure what kind of impact AI has on the labor market, which is indeed not an easy task. Currently, there are different research methods exploring such issues.
Summarizing past research, she pointed out that AI theoretically poses a high exposure risk to white-collar and cognitive work. The 'exposure index' represents the potential possibility of a profession being affected by AI, which does not equal absolute occurrence. Currently, the deep use of AI in enterprises is still insufficient, and it has almost no major impact on the labor force currently in employment. The current situation is that the help AI brings to humans is far greater than the risk of replacement.
Zhang Dandan emphasized that the large-scale, real impact of AI technology on the employment structure has not yet fully occurred. We are currently still in a window period. How to prepare during this stage and provide resources for training and skill optimization to those who might be impacted will depend on the rollout of public policies. (Editor: Yang Sheng-ju) 1150424
Choose to stand with the facts, every sponsorship from you is the power to protect press freedom.
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The text, images, and audio/video on this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast, publicly transmitted, or utilized without authorization.