At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Yahoo Finance was joined by PwC US Chair and Senior Partner Tim Ryan, who says companies have “embraced the power of gen AI,” making 2023 and likely 2024 big investment years. However, as adoption spreads he expects companies to use it to “upskill their employees” to do their jobs more efficiently.
Ryan stresses the need for transparency to “bring employees along on the journey” amid job displacement fears. He says giving employees “the skills they need” and involving them in innovating is key.
The rapid pace of generative AI innovation requires companies to proactively re-skill and reassure workers. Ryan notes PWC is guiding clients on adapting roles to complement AI rather than replacing them through upskilling and engagement.
“I think there’s an opportunity for all of us to play a part to make sure we bring everybody along,” Ryan tells Yahoo Finance.
This interview is part of Yahoo Finance’s exclusive coverage from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where our team will speak to top decision-makers as well as preeminent leaders in business, finance, and politics about the world’s most pressing issues and priorities for the coming year.
Editor’s note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
BRIAN SOZZI: A new survey out of PwC looking at how AI will impact businesses. That, of course, survey is coming at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Joining us now is Tim Ryan, PwC Chair and Senior Partner. Tim, good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
TIM RYAN: Great to be here. Thanks for having me back.
BRIAN SOZZI: A lot of cool stats in this survey. One that stood out to me, 68% of US CEOs see AI boosting productivity. What does that mean for jobs?
TIM RYAN: What it means is companies have embraced the power of AI. Last year, 2023, it was all about investing and beginning to learn. 2024 will be another year. The next couple of years, there’s a huge opportunity for companies to upskill their employees, to help them learn how to use this tool to do their jobs more efficiently, free up time and other areas around growth.
The other thing around jobs that we see tremendous growth opportunities for job growth in the sense that the human loop of testing AI. So we’re learning on AI right now. And over the next couple of years, humans will be used to test what comes out of the AI processes.
JULIE HYMAN: How do you reassure people about jobs, though? Because the message has been pretty consistent, that it’ll make some jobs easier, it’ll make jobs more productive, et cetera, et cetera. But it doesn’t feel like people quite believe that.
TIM RYAN: Yeah. And it’s understandable. There’s– trust is a big gap and many things. What’s really important for employers is to make sure you’re transparent with your employees and make sure you bring them along on the journey. The more kind of heart and mind you have in your employees who are in their jobs, the better they’re going to be at their jobs. So it’s important to have an open discussion with employees.
And one of the biggest things is to give them the skills that they need. At PwC, we’ve begun an upskilling journey five years ago of making employee upskilling around technology akin to an employee benefit like 401(k) and health care. What we see leading companies doing is teaching their people how to use this important tool, so they can gain knowledge. If you bring them along, that increases their ability to do the jobs today well, and it gives them more options going forward. So that’s one important thing to do.
The other important thing to do is give them the opportunity to innovate. As time frees up, they’re closest to the customer, they’re closer to the business process. And that gives them the opportunity to innovate.
JULIE HYMAN: You know, this is what we’re talking about with so-called white collar jobs, so higher-skilled jobs. Lower-skilled jobs, some of them might go away. And I wonder if they will have the same upskilling opportunities to then move up the chain.
TIM RYAN: Yeah. There’s– time will tell where we go at this point. We’ve been talking about the loss of jobs to technology for a long time right now. And we continue to see opportunity for job growth out there. And what people are worried about even 20 years ago with the computer and the internet, and now we see automation five years ago. the reality is there’s plenty of job growth. And that’s part of it because we see tremendous innovation, new business formation, and the opportunity for people to make a difference.
I do think it does come back to reskilling and it comes back to teaching people skills at every level in the organization. But I continue to be very optimistic around job growth.
BRIAN SOZZI: Ahead of the Davos, I had the chance to catch up with the head of the IMF. And they had a survey out looking at how AI will impact jobs. But what she told me was that we might need new social safety nets, most notably, because baby boomers may not be able to be upskilled. Do you think we’re going to see that?
TIM RYAN: I think there’s an opportunity for all of us to play in part to make sure we bring everybody along. The theme of Davos this year is rebuilding trust. Part of that trust is with people in society who have been left behind. We have a massive opportunity to do that. I think if we don’t invest in skilling, if we don’t give people the ability to move across companies in different jobs, we will have a problem around a lack of a social safety net.
So I think what is important is to give– is create those opportunities for people to do it. Again, I think if we do our part business, if we work with government at the state level, the city level, the country level, I think we have the opportunity to prevent what people are worried about.
JULIE HYMAN: The other piece of AI is monetization, which is a big theme, right? There haven’t been that many companies that have really jumped into that. Yet 44% of the people in your survey said, it will provide a net increase in profits in the next 12 months. I was really struck by that. I thought that was a high number.
TIM RYAN: Yeah, it is. Keep in mind, people have been on the journey for many years. Gen AI for many of us hit really last year with OpenAI and a number of announcements that they had made. Companies have been on this journey. And they made a lot of investments in ’23.
I think in ’24 and ’25 is when we begin to see things that affect the bottom line. I think most of that is on the efficiency side. The real opportunities are ones that we can only begin to imagine now around revenue growth opportunities. I think those come more in ’25 and ’26 as we see the real power. And again, that’s where I see tremendous business and opportunity, growth from that perspective as well.
BRIAN SOZZI: We’re asking all leaders, Tim, some of their biggest surprises so far at Davos. What has been some of your biggest surprises?
TIM RYAN: One of my biggest surprises is the massive focus on AI. It’s the only– this is my seventh year at Davos. It’s the first time two years in a row the topic has stuck. So last year was Gen AI, this year was Gen AI. It tells me that it is very important the fact that it stuck that long.
I also think one of the things is we do need to talk more. One of my surprises is a topic we’re not talking enough about. And that is the importance of management staying focused on their businesses with all of these other things happening that are out there. We’ve got elections across the globe. We’ve got geopolitical tensions. There’s a lot of things on people’s minds. At the end of the day, what we see in our client base is companies that are focused on their business.
Driving revenue growth, driving efficiencies, taking care of their employees, motivating and motivating their employees, and going after their customers and growth, those are the ones that are winning. And I think now more than ever, we have to talk about the need for focus, because good quality management wins.
BRIAN SOZZI: Aren’t you cold? You’re the second person– [INAUDIBLE] also came on the set with no jacket. It’s cold. It’s cold.
TIM RYAN: I think we’re both from Boston, so Davos is similar.
BRIAN SOZZI: We have to ask– we have to ask the tough questions here nonetheless. Tim Ryan, PwC Chair and Senior Partner, always great to get some time with you. Really appreciate it.
TIM RYAN: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
