Recent research from Forrester and IDC highlights how automation, AI, and robotic process automation (RPA) – often termed digital labor – are reshaping the workforce by reducing reliance on human labor and boosting productivity. Below we summarize key analyst reports and white papers (from the last 2–3 years) that support this trend, with links to official summaries or press releases and notable findings.
Forrester Research: Automation's Impact on Jobs
"The Future Of US Jobs, 2032: The Rise Of Human/Machine Teams" (Forrester, 2022)
Forrester forecasts that automation will take over 11 million U.S. jobs by 2032 (about 7% of the workforce). New job creation (in areas like renewable energy and tech) will offset some losses, but a net 1.5 million jobs are still expected to disappear in that timeframe forrester.com.
The report emphasizes that human–machine collaboration will become the norm, and companies must plan for workers to cede tasks (or entire roles) to automation in order to excel in new areas forrester.com.
"Agency AI-Powered Workforce Forecast, 2030 (US)" (Forrester, 2023)
This industry-specific forecast reveals that by 2030, U.S. advertising agencies will lose ~32,000 jobs to automation – about 7.5% of the sector's workforce forrester.com.
Process-oriented and repetitive roles are shrinking due to automation, machine learning, and generative AI. Forrester notes that clerical and administrative roles are most at risk, while more creative and strategic roles are likely to remain in demand forrester.com forrester.com.
Notably, generative AI alone is projected to account for roughly one-third of these automated job losses in the ad industry forrester.com.
"2023 Generative AI Jobs Impact Forecast" (Forrester, 2023)
Forrester's analysis of generative AI's influence on employment found that by 2030, generative AI will directly replace about 2.4 million U.S. jobs. It will augment (change the nature of) an additional ~11 million jobs in that period theregister.com.
The report stresses that while AI will reshape far more jobs than it fully eliminates, there is a clear impact on white-collar roles (e.g. technical writing, copyediting, administrative support) which are being partially or wholly automated theregister.com. In short, even knowledge workers face workforce reductions as AI takes over routine portions of their work.
Forrester's broader "Future of Work" research also echoes these trends. For example, their guidance on the future workforce notes that certain job categories will shrink dramatically by 2030 (e.g. single-domain and repetitive "cubicle" jobs), translating to an estimated net 16% reduction in jobs when accounting for new roles created forrester.com forrester.com. This underscores that one ingredient in digital-era scale – human labor – becomes relatively less needed as automation efficiency rises forrester.com.
IDC Research: Digital Labor and Workforce Transformation
IDC FutureScape Predictions (2024)
IDC projects an aggressive adoption of "digital workers" across enterprises. For example, researchers at IDC predict that by 2026, 90% of Global 2000 organizations will have augmented operational roles with automation and AI technologies, which in turn will boost worker efficiency by ~30% on average controlup.com.
Similarly, in Asia-Pacific, IDC forecasts that 60% of organizations will leverage automation to augment jobs by 2027, increasing worker efficiency by 50% iconnect007.com.
These efficiencies imply that fewer human hours are needed for the same output – effectively enabling workforce reduction or redeployment. IDC notes that greater use of AI-driven automation "reduces human intervention, creating a more autonomous environment" in business operations iconnect007.com.
IDC European Future of Work Survey (2023)
A recent IDC survey of European executives provides direct evidence of planned workforce reduction via digital labor. As of mid-2023, 78% of European companies reported they are piloting or deploying automation specifically to offset labor shortages blog-idceurope.com.
Moreover, 28% of European business leaders have actively discussed outright replacing employee positions with automation, and 78% say they plan to replace up to 20% of their workforce with "digital colleagues" (AI/automation) in the near future blog-idceurope.com.
This indicates that many organizations are intentionally using AI and RPA to reduce headcount needs by as much as one-fifth. IDC's analysts candidly advise that in most cases "automation will result in job losses", and they urge firms to be transparent about that reality blog-idceurope.com.
At the same time, leading organizations will pair those digital workforce initiatives with retraining, aiming to refocus displaced employees into more strategic work rather than simply cutting staff blog-idceurope.com.
Focus on Productivity and Transformation
IDC emphasizes that the drive for digital labor is not only about cutting costs, but also about enhancing productivity and agility. The adoption of cloud-based automation and AI-enabled processes is shown to increase overall work productivity and enable more agile ways of working blogs.idc.com.
By automating routine tasks, companies can respond faster to market changes and alleviate talent shortages in certain roles. For example, IDC finds that many organizations are using AI bots to fill gaps during labor shortfalls and to take over low-value, repetitive tasks – freeing human employees to focus on higher-value activities blogs.idc.com blogs.idc.com.
This transformation of the workforce through digital labor "factories" (automation programs) often lets firms "do more with less," maintaining output with fewer full-time staff. In IDC's view, the most resilient, future-ready companies are those that aggressively deploy automation while reskilling their human workforce to work alongside AI.
Digital Labor Factory Perspective
What This Means For Your Organization
The research from Forrester and IDC confirms what we're seeing in the market: organizations are actively planning for and implementing workforce reductions through digital labor solutions. This isn't just about cost-cutting—it's about transforming how work gets done.
Digital Labor Factory's approach aligns perfectly with these trends. We provide the Microsoft-native automation solutions that enable you to replace routine knowledge work with digital workers, while helping you redeploy your human talent to higher-value activities.
Sources
The findings above are drawn from official analyst reports and white papers by Forrester and IDC, including Forrester's press releases summarizing Future of Jobs forecasts and industry-specific studies forrester.com forrester.com, as well as IDC's published Future of Work predictions and survey results controlup.com blog-idceurope.com.
Each data point underscores the central conclusion that digital labor and automation are driving significant workforce reduction and reshaping labor needs – even as they deliver efficiency gains and new opportunities for the organizations that embrace them. The trend is clear: companies are increasingly substituting software "workers" for human labor in repetitive or rules-based tasks, resulting in leaner human workforces and a reimagined division of labor between people and machines.
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