SAP head says AI will cut routine but won't destroy German jobs
Artificial intelligence (AI) will not destroy jobs in Germany, the head of Bitkom, the association of Germany's IT sector, predicted on Sunday.
While demand for workers would be reduced overall, this was no reason for concern in the light of a lack of skilled workers in Germany, Bitkom chief executive Bernhard Rohleder told outlets of the Funke Media Group.
"This can be said for Germany: that AI will not have any negative effects on the jobs market for the foreseeable future," he said.
"There will be jobs that will scarcely be done by people in the future, such as technical translations or simple office work, such as taking notes, completing protocols or standard correspondence," he said.
Administrations already lacked more than half a million workers, he said. AI would increase competitiveness and productivity in admin departments and public service, he predicted.
The situation was different in countries with more young people, Rohleder said.
Christian Klein, chief executive of business software giant SAP, said his company saw AI as an opportunity. The focus was now on training staff and new value creation, he said. SAP had been able to boost developers' productivity by 30%, Klein said.
"Monotonous routine tasks will fall away, freeing up time for creative thinking and genuine value creation," he said.
Klein was reacting to comments from Dario Amodei, head of US AI company Anthropic, who has predicted mass unemployment and the destruction of millions of jobs in the United States.
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