#futureofwork2024 | Inga Tigai, KPMG Romania: Concept of AI is everywhere, but not all jobs will be replaced by AI

During the latest edition of the Working Romania conference, Inga Tigai, Tax Partner, Head of Tax & Legal Technology at KPMG in Romania, spoke about artificial intelligence, which is increasingly used in many industries, but also about the fact that the changes caused by digitalization are so great that we all have to adapt to the new conditions demanded by the younger generations. On the other hand, we should take care of the foreign workers who are now coming to us to make sure that we can integrate into society those who will want to stay in Romania.

”When we look at labour force surveys, we see that the concept of IA is everywhere, but I can tell you how I came back to my feet after a bathroom pipe broke and I changed three teams of workers who tried to fix the problem. So, if we want to talk about AI we have to do it in moderation because not all jobs will be replaced by AI. This technology is already used in some areas and there are many examples. I know that skills like AI we all have to learn because we don’t know what the actual case studies are. If we look at the fact that it took Netflix four years to reach one million users and ChatGPT took four days, we see that the pace of change and adoption is much higher.

AI has a different importance for different industries, but it is clear that Romania has the potential to absorb this type of technology to make us more competitive and to catch up with countries that are already in pole position in adopting these advanced technologies.

Regarding the immigration phenomenon, I can say that I am glad that the number of foreign workers has increased year by year because there are industries that depend on them. Now we have a number of foreigners equivalent to the inhabitants of a city like Oradea. What I think we don’t have are some social inclusion programs that we should work on in advance to take care of what happens to this workforce in 5 – 10 years, how they will manage to integrate into Romanian culture. The contributions that reach the state from these workers are in the order of tens of millions of euros, in the form of work permit fees, health contributions, taxes.

The number of employment contracts in 2023, compared to previous years, was up, in the area of self-employment was also up. The data also show that the highest paid employee is a man in the IT area in Bucharest. I did some studies before the tax changes in November 2023 and I expected to see negative trends in the number of employees after the elimination of tax breaks, but this did not happen. On the one hand the consumption of technology is increasing and on the other hand we have a very low score in DESI, so people who are qualified in this area are in demand. And even if not all companies have fully compensated for the drop in salary, they have other methods of compensation, such as the Stock Options program.

In the study we did last year on small and large companies, we saw that not all companies were financially compensated for the loss, but they looked at benefits, bonuses or other ways of compensation.

Concerning the gender pay gap, Romania is doing relatively well overall, the gap is around 5%, while in Europe the average is 14%, but we have to differentiate between different sectors. In the state, for example, there is no pay gap, but in the private sector it is as high as 11-12%, which is quite a big difference.

If we look at the new generation we see that there are many environmentally friendly things that they are already adopting, and then we have to adopt them in the workplace. And we need to have continuous learning programmes, which we all need. And I would try to give them another four-day working week, obviously with certain conditions, where they also give something back.”