Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America
Empirical evidence on the potential impacts of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is mostly focused on high-income countries. In contrast, little is known about the role of this technology on the future economic pathways of developing economies. This paper contributes to fill this gap by estimating the exposure of the Latin American labor market to GenAI. It provides detailed statistics of GenAI exposure between and within countries by leveraging a rich set of harmonized household and labor force surveys. To account for the slower pace of technology adoption in developing economies, it adjusts the measures of exposure to GenAI by using the likelihood of accessing digital technologies at work. This is then used to assess the extent to which the digital divide across and within countries will be a barrier to maximize the productivity gains among occupations that could otherwise be augmented by GenAI tools. The findings show that certain characteristics are consistently correlated with higher exposure. Specifically, urban-based jobs that require higher education, are situated in the formal sector, and are held by individuals with higher incomes are more likely to come into interaction with this technology. Moreover, there is a pronounced tilt toward younger workers facing greater exposure, including the risk of job automation, particularly in the finance, insurance, and public administration sectors. When adjusting for access to digital technologies, the findings show that the digital divide is a major barrier to realizing the positive effects of GenAI on jobs in the region. In particular, nearly half of the positions that could potentially benefit from augmentation are hampered by lack of use of digital technologies. This negative effect of the digital divide is more pronounced in poorer countries.
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC: World Bank
2024-08-01
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| Subjects: | INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION, DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY, INCOME INEQUALITY, JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT, INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE, SDG 9, DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH, SDG 8, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099826507262419608/IDU197096bf316be814a251b452145b5f0fd5aca https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41984 |
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dig-okr-10986419842024-08-09T03:32:09Z Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America Gmyrek, Paweł Winkler, Hernán Garganta, Santiago INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 Empirical evidence on the potential impacts of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is mostly focused on high-income countries. In contrast, little is known about the role of this technology on the future economic pathways of developing economies. This paper contributes to fill this gap by estimating the exposure of the Latin American labor market to GenAI. It provides detailed statistics of GenAI exposure between and within countries by leveraging a rich set of harmonized household and labor force surveys. To account for the slower pace of technology adoption in developing economies, it adjusts the measures of exposure to GenAI by using the likelihood of accessing digital technologies at work. This is then used to assess the extent to which the digital divide across and within countries will be a barrier to maximize the productivity gains among occupations that could otherwise be augmented by GenAI tools. The findings show that certain characteristics are consistently correlated with higher exposure. Specifically, urban-based jobs that require higher education, are situated in the formal sector, and are held by individuals with higher incomes are more likely to come into interaction with this technology. Moreover, there is a pronounced tilt toward younger workers facing greater exposure, including the risk of job automation, particularly in the finance, insurance, and public administration sectors. When adjusting for access to digital technologies, the findings show that the digital divide is a major barrier to realizing the positive effects of GenAI on jobs in the region. In particular, nearly half of the positions that could potentially benefit from augmentation are hampered by lack of use of digital technologies. This negative effect of the digital divide is more pronounced in poorer countries. 2024-08-01T15:59:17Z 2024-08-01T15:59:17Z 2024-08-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099826507262419608/IDU197096bf316be814a251b452145b5f0fd5aca https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41984 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper; 10863 CC BY 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank application/pdf text/plain Washington, DC: World Bank |
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| country |
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| countrycode |
US |
| component |
Bibliográfico |
| access |
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| databasecode |
dig-okr |
| tag |
biblioteca |
| region |
America del Norte |
| libraryname |
Biblioteca del Banco Mundial |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 |
| spellingShingle |
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 Gmyrek, Paweł Winkler, Hernán Garganta, Santiago Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| description |
Empirical evidence on the potential
impacts of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is
mostly focused on high-income countries. In contrast, little
is known about the role of this technology on the future
economic pathways of developing economies. This paper
contributes to fill this gap by estimating the exposure of
the Latin American labor market to GenAI. It provides
detailed statistics of GenAI exposure between and within
countries by leveraging a rich set of harmonized household
and labor force surveys. To account for the slower pace of
technology adoption in developing economies, it adjusts the
measures of exposure to GenAI by using the likelihood of
accessing digital technologies at work. This is then used to
assess the extent to which the digital divide across and
within countries will be a barrier to maximize the
productivity gains among occupations that could otherwise be
augmented by GenAI tools. The findings show that certain
characteristics are consistently correlated with higher
exposure. Specifically, urban-based jobs that require higher
education, are situated in the formal sector, and are held
by individuals with higher incomes are more likely to come
into interaction with this technology. Moreover, there is a
pronounced tilt toward younger workers facing greater
exposure, including the risk of job automation, particularly
in the finance, insurance, and public administration
sectors. When adjusting for access to digital technologies,
the findings show that the digital divide is a major barrier
to realizing the positive effects of GenAI on jobs in the
region. In particular, nearly half of the positions that
could potentially benefit from augmentation are hampered by
lack of use of digital technologies. This negative effect of
the digital divide is more pronounced in poorer countries. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| topic_facet |
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY PLANNING MONITORING AND EVALUATION DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGY INCOME INEQUALITY JOBS AND DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SDG 9 DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH SDG 8 |
| author |
Gmyrek, Paweł Winkler, Hernán Garganta, Santiago |
| author_facet |
Gmyrek, Paweł Winkler, Hernán Garganta, Santiago |
| author_sort |
Gmyrek, Paweł |
| title |
Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| title_short |
Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| title_full |
Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| title_fullStr |
Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Buffer or Bottleneck? Employment Exposure to Generative AI and the Digital Divide in Latin America |
| title_sort |
buffer or bottleneck? employment exposure to generative ai and the digital divide in latin america |
| publisher |
Washington, DC: World Bank |
| publishDate |
2024-08-01 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099826507262419608/IDU197096bf316be814a251b452145b5f0fd5aca https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41984 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT gmyrekpaweł bufferorbottleneckemploymentexposuretogenerativeaiandthedigitaldivideinlatinamerica AT winklerhernan bufferorbottleneckemploymentexposuretogenerativeaiandthedigitaldivideinlatinamerica AT gargantasantiago bufferorbottleneckemploymentexposuretogenerativeaiandthedigitaldivideinlatinamerica |
| _version_ |
1809105979859533824 |