As China embraces AI, young workers face growing job displacement risk

New Delhi: China’s rapid rollout of artificial intelligence is transforming workplaces across sectors, lifting productivity but also fuelling fears of job displacement, with young workers bearing the brunt, a report has said.

As Beijing pushes to embed AI across the economy, employees in fields from software development to food delivery are feeling the impact, according to a Quartz report. Beijing-based programmer Fei Zhaojun, for instance, lost his job after his employer began testing whether AI tools could handle coding tasks once done by humans. Fei was among about 160 staff laid off in a workforce reduction; he now says many mid-level programming roles are becoming replaceable as AI capabilities improve and has shifted to creating short-form videos while weighing his next move.

The pace of AI uptake in China has been striking. Market intelligence firm IDC says fewer than 10 per cent of Chinese industrial enterprises used AI models and agents in 2024; that share jumped to 47.5 per cent last year, a nearly fivefold rise in 12 months. Companies are deploying AI across R&D, manufacturing and supply chains to boost efficiency and cut costs.

The shift is increasingly visible in everyday life: humanoid robots are being used in logistics and parcel-sorting hubs, autonomous machines are taking on tasks such as traffic management, and food-delivery robots are becoming more common in cities, raising concerns about the long-term prospects of millions of workers in delivery and related services.

The labour-market impact comes at a difficult time for China’s young people. While the overall urban unemployment rate is around 5 per cent, joblessness among those aged 16 to 24 who are not in education is significantly higher, at about 17.9 per cent in July, according to official data cited in recent reports. Analysts warn that widespread automation could make it even harder for younger workers to secure stable jobs, especially as a record 12.7 million university graduates enter the labour market this year.

Entry-level roles in administrative work, basic research, data analysis and junior programming are among those most vulnerable to AI-driven automation, squeezing the traditional first rung on the career ladder. Researchers say AI is not the root cause of China’s youth employment crisis, but it is intensifying pressure in an already crowded job market.

Economists acknowledge AI’s productivity benefits but caution that the transition could carry significant social costs. Increased automation is expected to support growth, yet large-scale displacement may worsen employment pressures and, if new opportunities do not emerge quickly enough, contribute to social instability, the report said. Some estimates suggest nearly 10 per cent of Chinese jobs—around 70 million positions—are at high risk of AI-driven displacement, with workers in their twenties particularly exposed.

(Inputs from IANS)