Microsoft’s AI CEO joins the chorus of executives who say they expect artificial intelligence to automate a wide range of tasks.
Mustafa Suleiman, head of AI at Microsoft, said in an interview with the Financial Times that he predicts that most, if not all, tasks in white-collar fields will be automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.
“We will be able to perform at a human level in most, if not all, professional tasks,” Suleiman said in an interview published Wednesday. “White-collar jobs such as lawyers, accountants, project managers, and marketers who sit in front of a computer will be fully automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”
The CEO said this trend is already being observed in software engineering, where employees are using “AI-assisted coding for the majority of code creation.”
“The relationship with technology is completely different, and that’s what’s happened in the last six months,” he said.
Rapid advances in AI over the past five years have led to real, documented changes in the way some white-collar jobs are performed.
Business Insider recently reported that “AI fatigue” is impacting software engineering. This technology has unlocked productivity, but it has also brought fatigue as workers are expected to take on more work.
Some AI leaders and pioneers say artificial intelligence will advance to the point of replacing the entire workforce.
Stuart Russell, a computer scientist who co-wrote one of the world’s most authoritative books on AI, said in an interview last year that jobs ranging from surgeons to CEOs are at risk of being replaced, and political leaders face “80% unemployment” due to AI.
Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, previously said that half of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear due to AI.
“As the creators of this technology, we have an obligation and an obligation to be honest about what’s going to happen,” Amodei said in an interview with Axios. “I don’t think this is what people are interested in.”
A Microsoft spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
