Adecco Group AG Class N

Adecco Group, the world's leading staffing firm, says artificial intelligence will not lead to massive job losses, viewing AI as more likely to change the nature of work and responsibilities rather than eliminate jobs entirely. Adecco's research found that while many companies cite AI as a factor in workforce reductions, the overall labor market shows no signs of collapse. Data from the OECD, covering 38 member countries, shows that three and a half years after the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, employment rates remain at record highs while unemployment is near historic lows. Denis Machuel, CEO of Adecco, said AI is driving major changes in the world of work but has not reached the point of an employment disaster, with the main impact being a shift in roles and workloads rather than job elimination. However, Adecco acknowledges that entry-level positions, particularly certain office jobs, are facing increased pressure as AI can handle repetitive tasks or data processing. But companies cannot eliminate all entry-level roles because it would harm long-term talent pipelines, requiring them to redesign jobs so that AI augments employee capabilities. The Adecco CEO noted that businesses need to invest in upskilling and reskilling, and foster collaboration between companies, governments, and educational institutions to prepare the workforce for the AI era.

Adecco has surpassed one million AI-powered candidate interactions across ten countries, marking a major milestone in its AI transformation. The company has recorded 1.2 million candidate-agent interactions, including 250,000 fully completed interviews across 50,000 jobs, equating to more than 12 years of continuous conversation time. AI agents have been deployed across seven stages of the recruitment lifecycle, and 51% of interactions occur outside traditional working hours. In lead markets, the initiative has helped cut time-to-deliver by 50% and drive fill rates above 80%, with customer satisfaction scores of 4.3 out of 5. Adecco is now preparing to expand its high-volume recruitment capability into additional countries, building on a successful experimentation phase in Latin America.