Work in Europe will increasingly require collaboration between humans, agents, and robots. Despite the increasing adoption of AI, many human skills will endure, though they may be applied differently. Inherently human capabilities, such as empathy and leadership, are the least likely to be affected by automation. Conversely, more technical and repetitive tasks, including invoicing and operating machinery, have a much higher exposure, note McKinsey’s Sylvain Johansson, Anu Madgavkar, Ulf Schrader, and coauthors. Most of the top 100 skills in demand across ten European countries are at least partially exposed to automation, suggesting that skills change will be widespread.
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Line chart showing the distribution of a Skill Change Index (0–40 scale) across approximately 10,500 skills, ranked by percentile from lowest to highest automation exposure. The curve rises steadily from near 0 at the lowest percentiles to about 40 at the highest, indicating that automation exposure varies substantially across skills. Quartile values are approximately 20 at the 25th percentile, 25 at the median, and 30 at the 75th percentile. Skills with lower exposure include resilience, influencing skills, empathy, leadership, innovation, and collaboration; mid-range skills include research, problem solving, analytical skills, detail orientation, and quality control; and higher-exposure skills include software development, invoicing, accounting, and SQL. Dots represent index values for the top 100 skills, illustrating that interpersonal and leadership skills tend to be less exposed to automation, while structured technical and information-processing skills tend to be more exposed.
Source: Lightcast; national statistical offices; McKinsey Global Institute analysis
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