Women face a greater risk of disruption from AI

The report revealed that 9.6% of female-dominated roles were likely to be significantly affected by AI, compared with only 3.5% of male-dominated occupations. The disparity stemmed largely from AI’s growing role in administrative functions and clerical tasks, including secretarial and office support roles – areas where women remain overrepresented.

While the report acknowledged that AI was unlikely to result in the wholesale replacement of occupations, it warned of widespread transformation within many roles. Tasks within affected jobs may shift substantially as AI becomes capable of performing a broader range of cognitive functions.

Sectors such as media, software, and finance were highlighted as being particularly exposed to Generative AI, with the technology’s expanding capacity to learn and replicate increasingly complex tasks.

The ILO urged governments, employers, and workers' organisations to proactively engage with the development and deployment of AI. The report emphasised the need to guide technological integration in ways that improved both productivity and the quality of work, rather than simply displacing labour.

The ILO stated: “We stress that such exposure does not imply the immediate automation of an entire occupation, but rather the potential for a large share of its current tasks to be performed using this technology.”