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St. Louis workforce wont be on the front lines of the artificial intelligence revolution, a new report says, but it wont be immune either.

The Brookings Institution study looks at patent applications for artificial intelligence and compares them with occupational descriptions. For instance, a patent containing the phrase diagnose disease would affect a physicians job.

This method allowed researchers to zero in on artificial intelligence, or AI, in a way that hadnt been done before. Previous studies on the future of work defined automation broadly and tended to focus on more established technologies like computers and industrial robots.

Forecasts about AI, the fast-developing technology in which machines can learn and make decisions for themselves, have tended toward the sensational. Tesla founder Elon Musk famously called AI a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.

The patent study let researchers avoid scare stories and see which jobs the new technology might actually change.

Those most affected fell into two broad groups: production workers, in fields such as agriculture and manufacturing, and white-collar knowledge workers. AI will take over tasks where human judgment was once essential, from spotting defects to managing procurement.

Where earlier research found automation to have the biggest effect on young, unskilled workers, the people dealing with AI in the workplace will include highly paid professionals in their prime working years.

An interesting part of the story is this heavy orientation to better-educated, better-paid occupations in everything from business management to finance to technology to medicine, said Mark Muro, a Brookings senior fellow and co-author of the report. Factory automation has been more of a blue-collar phenomenon, but AI clearly has a very noteworthy white-collar look.

Women are less exposed than men because theyre over-represented in fields such as nursing and education that arent often mentioned in AI patents.

Cities most exposed to AI include technology hubs like San Jose and Seattle, agricultural towns like Bakersfield, California, and manufacturing centers such as Detroit and Louisville.

The St. Louis area shows up slightly below average, with 17% of jobs here highly exposed to AI. The metropolitan area has relatively high numbers of health care personnel, personal care workers and food preparers, all of which have low exposure.

That doesnt mean St. Louis can ignore the advance of AI. Some of the industries on which the region is staking its future, including medicine, finance and agriculture, will be transformed by the new technologies.

In general your science base and business sector concentrate your exposure, Muro explained. That you dont have a ton of manufacturing left reduces it.

The research, he cautioned, should be read with a couple of caveats. One is that its a study of potential exposure, not a forecast of any specific impact.

The other is that just because a job is affected by AI, it doesnt mean the workers will become obsolete. Some jobs could disappear, but AI could make other workers more productive and raise their pay.

Tasks that once seemed valuable, like the ability to glean insights from a spreadsheet, may become less so. Other skills, such as the ability to connect emotionally with a customer, may become more important.

As this revolution happens, well need government and educational institutions that can help workers adapt. Those dont exist today, in Muros opinion, and the need is becoming urgent.

Part of the reason all of this is frightening to people is because our training and adjustment systems are not all that good, he said.

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Is St. Louis ready for artificial intelligence? It will steal white-collar jobs here, too - STLtoday.com