Employment exposure to generative artifical intelligence in Latin America and the Caribbean

• Automation: Jobs where the majority of tasks today could theoretically be performed with GenAI - such jobs could potentially be automated.
• Augmentation: Jobs where some tasks can be performed using GenAI, but the majority need to be done by humans. Such jobs can be augmented by GenAI, speeding up some tasks and allowing more space for creative human work and new tasks.
• Big Unknown: A category between automation and augmentation potential, representing jobs where the balance of tasks today is between those that can be done with GenAI and those that cannot. This balance might shift over time as technology improves and occupations evolve, moving some jobs closer to automation and others to augmentation potential.

Comparing access to a computer at work among men and women in Latin America

Jobs in the categories of automation and augmentation as a share of female and male employment per country.

The yellow sections of the bars represent jobs with an available computer at work, while the turquoise sections represent jobs where a computer is not available at the workplace.

We can observe that in the case of jobs exposed to potential automation, most such occupations are already digitized, with the exception of countries with lower income (no buffer from negative effects). The plot also shows that these automation-exposed jobs are disproportionately held by women.

The situation is visibly different for occupations with augmentation potential. First, the distribution of such jobs is more equal among women and men. 

Additionally, the shares of jobs that do not use a computer at work are more evenly distributed between men and women. The turquoise zones (jobs with no computer at work) highlight the transformation potential that cannot be realized due to limitations in digital infrastructure (a bottleneck to a productive transformation).