Tübingen (dpa) - Change for millions of employees: the triumph of artificial intelligence in companies is massively changing jobs in Germany. Surveys show concerns, but also positive expectations. During a summer trip, Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) sounded out the changes and risks for millions of employees. Heil got people in the mood for change: Where jobs are being automated, professional reorientation is necessary.

Take retail, banking and insurance, for example: Demanding work in these sectors is also affected on a large scale by the advance of artificial intelligence (AI). In industry, on the other hand, the bottom line is that work will not be lost, says Heil. But here too: The requirements for employees are changing.

Fears and relief

According to a representative survey by Bitkom Research, 41% of people in Germany often feel overwhelmed by digital technologies. However, 85% say that digital technologies and applications make their lives easier. According to another survey by consulting firm Ernst & Young, just under one in four people are worried about being replaced by machines or technologies. According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, up to three million jobs in Germany could be affected by AI by 2030.

Robots instead of harvest workers

Heil was able to see what AI can mean on the farm today - for example on a fruit farm in Baden, where high-tech is responsible for shading and energy from solar modules. The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen showed what is important in the development of harvesting robots: a yellow robot, a kind of giant beetle on metal, stalked awkwardly across a test field.

"How long will it be before this is no longer a prototype?" asked Heil. Max Planck group leader Dieter Büchler replied that it would still be a while before the robot could pick strawberries on the ground, for example, partly covered by leaves. Today, crops are often grown and cultivated in such a way that the machines can reach them more easily. However, according to the researcher, development is progressing rapidly. Technicians are teaching the machines human movements. Even strawberries on the ground will soon no longer be a problem. Forecasts about the force of the changes are hardly possible due to the speed of change. "It may well be that we are only at the beginning of the development," says the Tübingen researcher.

Learning computer systems everywhere: as Heil says, there is hardly any area where AI is left out. There is hardly a movie or a more complex medical diagnosis without the latest technology. Do the opportunities or the risks dominate? Heil believes that AI could increase the opportunities for securing skilled workers and "humanizing the world of work". He announced new data protection rules for employees. The corresponding law should clearly tell companies and employees what is allowed and what is not - absolute data protection is required for health and vital data, for example.

Heil: All employees have to deal with AI

Human labor is likely to remain irreplaceable in some areas in the future. Heil drew attention to health, education and care. But AI is also making inroads here - "for example, to relieve a nurse of documentation duties through speech recognition systems". Heil: "By 2035, we will see that practically every job will involve artificial intelligence in one way or another - in different ways."

It is still unclear where all the required IT experts and programmers will come from. Heil referred to the large proportion of young Indians among all those studying for a doctorate in AI in Germany. "There is much more to come from us," announced the Minister of Labor. People from India should be approached more specifically from Germany in future. Heil and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) were already on a charm offensive in India around a year ago. This is not to be the last recruitment campaign in the country, where, unlike in Germany, there are so many young people that they cannot all be accommodated on the domestic labor market.