China cabinet office issues guidelines to soften AI job displacement

Why it matters: Beijing has promoted AI adoption across manufacturing and services, and officials now face the question of what happens to workers whose roles are automated. The guidelines signal that labour impact will be weighed alongside efficiency as AI rolls out, a shift that could shape hiring and training at Chinese and foreign firms operating in China.

The General Office of the State Council issued the opinion on 23 October, titled "Opinions on adapting to the development of artificial intelligence technology and helping build an employment-friendly development model", according to the text published on the central government website.

The document calls for "effectively slowing the employment-substitution impact of AI applications" and for inclusive development in which technological progress, industrial upgrading, job promotion and livelihood improvement move together.

It says AI should first be promoted in roles where labour is scarce or the environment is high-risk, and that its use in labour-intensive industries should be rolled out with the scope, intensity and pace carefully controlled to limit the shock to workers.

Companies are encouraged to explore an unemployment buffer period: when deploying AI at scale, they would notify affected workers in advance and offer support for retraining and reassignment.

The opinion sets out 18 main tasks across six areas, including strengthening AI's job-creation effect, building an employment risk assessment mechanism for AI applications, expanding digital-skills training, improving social insurance for flexible and new-form workers, and setting up monitoring and early-warning systems for AI-related job risks.