What happened
Published 23 June 2026 at Summer Davos, this World Economic Forum and Accenture report maps over 80 industrial jobs across seven manufacturing and supply-chain functions to show how intelligent automation is reshaping work. Its headline quantitative finding: 'three in four industrial jobs are expected to evolve, with around 40% of future industrial skills classified as new or emerging.' The report distinguishes four job-change categories (Elevated, Expanded, Emerging, Consolidated) and identifies wholly new roles — including Control Tower Governor, Autonomous Logistics Specialist and Robotics Engineer/Orchestrator. Crucially, it documents a performance gap: 'organisations that invest in people alongside technology realize productivity gains above 11%; those that sideline the human factor see gains of 4%.' The Playbook is paired with a publicly accessible digital Resource Hub and was informed by 40+ industry consultations and 10+ global workshops.
Why it matters
For any executive overseeing manufacturing or supply-chain operations, this report provides an evidence-based workforce redesign roadmap and quantifies the business cost of underinvesting in human-AI integration — directly informing CapEx allocation and workforce strategy decisions.
Action needed
Use the WEF Resource Hub job-mapping tool to audit which of your 80+ industrial roles fall into the Elevated, Expanded, Emerging or Consolidated categories, and initiate workforce planning for the new roles expected to emerge within your operations.