Discussion of artificial intelligence loomed large at the start of Staffing Industry Analysts’ Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference held last month in Dallas. Experts questioned by SIA estimated total staffing industry workers on assignment could increase 9% over the next three years because of AI. However, internal jobs will change with 39% of current staffing industry tasks to be replaced by AI.

Those were some of the ideas brought forward by SIA President Barry Asin and Research Director Brian Wallins during a keynote speech to kick off the conference on Sept. 20.

“There are a number of drivers for that [9% growth], but a lot of it is new jobs, economic growth and increased speed and ability to service clients faster,” Asin said.

Data on AI’s impact on staffing industry jobs came from a Delphi panel of more than a dozen staffing and technology experts organized by SIA. The 9% was the average of the forecasts.

In addition, the forecast of 39% of tasks replaced by AI was an average. The Delphi panel’s responses ranged from only 10% of tasks to a high of 75%.

Areas of the staffing industry where AI will likely have the largest impact include candidate screening/skills assessment, matching and selection and redeployment.

“Generative AI won’t take your job, but someone using it will,” Asin said, citing advice from one of the Delphi panelists.

“It’s not technology alone, it’s the ability of people to work with the technology,” Asin added.

Overall, AI is expected to bring massive changes.

Asin and Wallins cited a quote by Google CEO Sundar Pichai: “Artificial intelligence will have a more profound impact in humanity than fire, electricity and the internet.”

Wallins said, “I do think we’re going look upon this as the inflection point where AI begins to transform many of the things that we do. So the question is why? Well, there have been two key enablers. First, the digital age has really kind of opened up the floodgates to an immense amount of data that we simply didn’t have access to before. And two, the shared computing horsepower necessary to handle the repetition to train these models.”

But those changes can be positive and negative.

Asin and Wallins cited contrasting views on the future of AI from Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen.

“I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence,” Musk warned. “If I were to guess what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.”

DeGrasse Tyson said, “Time to behave, so when artificial intelligence becomes our overlord, we’ve reduced the reasons for it to exterminate us all.”

However, Andreessen was bullish on AI.

“He [Andreessen] argues that AI is going to save the world by driving incredible productivity growth, which will go throughout the economy,” Asin said. “This will lead to economic growth, new industries, new jobs, wage growth, a lot more wealth and all sorts of prosperity. If you look back at the internet, I think in the end that has done a similar thing.”

AI also isn’t the only type of technology staffing is turning to. Talent platforms continue to be a big deal, with 25% of staffing clients at large firms saying they use such technology and 41% saying they are likely to do so in the next two years. In addition, seven of the top 10 largest staffing firms have a platform component.

SIA research found $21 billion in global temporary staffing platform revenue in 2022.

Direct sourcing is also growing with client companies expecting a median 30% of spend going through direct sourcing in 10 years, up from 10% today. This is among buyers already using direct sourcing.

Other discussion points by Asin and Wallins in the keynote speech:

• The share of the workforce that is contingent is forecast to grow to 28% in 2033 from 19% today.
• Talent is still in the driver’s seat, with unemployment remaining near record lows and slower growth in the labor force ahead.
• Remote work is here to stay. In 2022, SIA research found that 47% of internal staffing firm employees work entirely remotely, up from 7% in 2018. “The death of remote work is greatly exaggerated, and I think it’s here to stay with us,” Asin said.
• Skills-based hiring is expected to grow. This type of hiring is five times more predictive of job performance than hiring based on education and two times more predictive than hiring based on work experience. Another data point: The number of job postings that require a college degree fell by 37% on LinkedIn between January 2022 and January 2023.