Though not all of us are ready to welcome our new robot overlords, it would behoove us at least to prepare for their arrival. According to a recent report by Staffing Industry Analysts assessing the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on the staffing industry, that day may come more quickly than you think [Corporate Members can access the report here]. The report is based largely on the findings of a September 2013 academic study titled “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne.

That underlying study yielded the rather alarming conclusion that 47 percent of total U.S. employment was at “high risk” of computerization within the subsequent 10 to 20 years. By our further analysis, however, the share of temporary staffing jobs at “high risk” is even greater, at 63 percent. This is due to the fact that the mix of temporary agency employment includes a greater share of jobs with a high probability of computerization relative to the overall economy.

Our estimate of the average probability of computerization across all temporary agency jobs is 0.719, with the overall risk for commercial staffing (0.802) much higher than that of professional staffing (0.327). Within the professional space, however, there is enormous disparity between staffing segments. At the high end is finance & accounting which, at 0.845, is at greater risk than the average commercial segment, and more than twice that of the next-highest professional segment (clinical/scientific, at 0.413). Fortunately for the field of healthcare staffing, its average probability of computerization is 0.242, second-lowest within the professional category (just ahead of engineering/design, at 0.233).

As we see in the table below, a similarly broad range of risk levels appears when we narrow our focus to occupations within the healthcare staffing segment. Jobs that are highly technical with little patient interaction bear the highest risk of being automated into obsolescence, while those that require a high level of manual dexterity or creative or social intelligence appear relatively safe.

Click on charts to enlarge.

The AI/robotic revolution is not necessarily all negative for temporary staffing. The structural changes portended by the trend toward computerization might cause employers to seek more flexible work arrangements over the medium term. Longer term, we might infer that staffing firms will include automated work solutions in their offerings as these emerging technologies are further developed.