McKinsey says AI could create more jobs than it destroys, but millions still face displacement

The AI-will-steal-your-job narrative just got a major counterweight. McKinsey Global Institute released a report projecting that artificial intelligence may ultimately generate more employment than it eliminates, though the path from here to there won’t be painless for millions of American workers. The report, titled “Agents, robots, and us: Skill partnerships in the age of AI,” paints a picture of a labor market in transformation rather than freefall. The core finding: roughly 57% of current US work hours have the theoretical potential for automation, but that number represents a ceiling, not a forecast of actual job losses. The $2.9 trillion collaboration thesis McKinsey’s central argument rests on the idea that the biggest economic gains won’t come from replacing humans with machines. They’ll come from redesigning workflows so humans and AI work together. The projected payoff for getting that collaboration right: up to $2.9 trillion in additional annual value by 2030. One of the more reassuring data points in the report: over 70% of skills that employers currently seek are applicable to both automatable and non-automatable tasks. In practical terms, that means most workers aren’...