ManpowerGroup CEO: AI Is Reshaping the Labor Market, But There Won't Be an Apocalypse

The CEO of the world's largest recruitment firm, ManpowerGroup, is tempering fears over an alleged AI-driven jobs apocalypse. In an interview with "Rzeczpospolita," Jonas Prising acknowledges that AI is reshaping the labor market structurally, especially in software development and customer service, but sees no grounds for talk of an employment apocalypse.

ManpowerGroup operates in dozens of countries, helping millions of temporary and permanent workers find jobs each year, and its recurring labor market surveys are among the most frequently cited sources of employment data worldwide. Its CEO's remarks therefore carry weight not just as commentary but as practical insight, grounded in direct contact with thousands of employers looking for workers.

No Apocalypse, But Change

Prising stresses that technology has always shaped business and the labor market, and automation has been advancing for decades. What's new is the pace at which AI is entering companies, leaving little time for strategic preparation. Rather than mass layoffs, the ManpowerGroup CEO speaks of AI expanding people's capabilities rather than simply replacing them.

Deploying artificial intelligence isn't just a matter of technology, it's also a matter of change management - Jonas Prising, CEO of ManpowerGroup

That distinction is crucial for companies that treat AI adoption purely as an IT project. According to Prising, success depends more on how an organization prepares its people to work with new tools than on computing power or the choice of language model itself.

Sectors Under Pressure

The ManpowerGroup CEO points to two areas where AI's impact is structural rather than cyclical. The first is the technology sector, particularly software development, where falling demand for programmers isn't the result of an economic slowdown but of coding tools genuinely taking over parts of the job. The second is customer service, where chatbots and AI agents are replacing more and more of the first line of contact.

Prising notes that labor market conditions vary sharply by region. Europe and North America are performing poorly, while China, Vietnam, Thailand and India are posting strong employment figures. This suggests that part of the recruitment slowdown in the West stems from a combination of weaker economic conditions and accelerated automation, not from AI alone.

AI Skills Hard to Find

Paradoxically, despite fears of job losses, ManpowerGroup data also points to the opposite problem: companies lack people who can work effectively with AI. According to the latest talent shortage survey, AI-related competencies have this year overtaken traditional engineering and IT skills as the hardest to find in the global labor market.

Nearly one in four employers say they are currently hiring specifically to keep up with the pace of digital change. This shows that AI is not only eliminating certain positions but also creating demand for entirely new competencies that the market still lacks.

The Polish Perspective

Data for Poland shows that companies still rarely treat employee reskilling as a strategy for addressing talent shortages. Only 26 percent of Polish companies rely on training to close the skills gap, meaning most still look for ready-made specialists externally rather than investing in developing their current staff for AI.

Prising also cites the example of industries with exceptionally high turnover, such as call centers, where without AI-powered tools, staff attrition can reach as much as 100 percent annually. In such settings, automating part of the workload can genuinely ease the burden on people rather than replace them, since turnover there is already extremely high regardless of technology.

The ManpowerGroup CEO also mentions countries with shrinking workforces, such as Japan, where AI and automation are seen not as a threat to employment but as a way to sustain the economy amid a declining number of workers. That perspective, in a Poland facing similar demographic trends, could gain relevance in the coming years.

For Polish companies, the message from the interview is fairly clear: AI is changing specific roles, especially in coding and customer service, but the net effect will largely depend on whether employers invest in reskilling people before competitive pressure forces them to do so in a hurry.