TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – According to a new survey conducted by KPMG Taiwan (安侯建業), 33 percent of the chief information officers (CIO) at major IT companies around the world predict that at least 20 percent of the workforce will be replaced by AI and automation in the next five years.

KPMG Taiwan cooperated with Harvey Nash to survey 3,645 CIOs across 108 countries and released the report "2019 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey." In general, 2019 has been a good year for IT development because industry budgets have increased and wages are also on the rise.

According to the report, 33 percent of CIOs around the globe think that AI and automation will replace more than 20 percent of the workers by 2024. In the Asia-Pacific region, 44 percent of the CIOs agree with the trend, perhaps because the region has been largely dedicated to outsourcing services.

However, 54 percent of CIOs in the Asia-Pacific region believe that the number of employees in the technological sector will still rise next year. Likewise, the prediction indicates that the need for talented people will not shrink.

The report also concluded that the most-needed skills in the job market are centered around big-data, cybersecurity, and AI. Exemplifying this is the fact that three new digital-only banks in Taiwan are seeking to recruit employees with specialties in information technology, reported the Liberty Times.