What we learned about the future of work in Asia at AMNC25, and other trends in jobs and skills this month

Around the world, labour markets are undergoing profound shifts, and Asia is racing ahead in digital innovation. From the explosion of app-based gig platforms to the rise of social media influencers as mainstream earners, Asia offers a glimpse into the many ways in which the future of work is taking shape around the world.

These transformative trends were extensively discussed at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2025 (AMNC25) in Tianjin, where over 1,700 global leaders gathered to explore how entrepreneurship and innovation can reignite growth amid a fast-evolving geoeconomic landscape.

Here are some key takeaways about the future of work in Asia.

The gig economy remains a growing source of income for workers, particularly in Asia, where it represents the world's largest such economy.

In China alone, over 200 million workers are engaged in gig work, accounting for approximately 25% of the country's workforce. The World Bank estimates that the gig economy now makes up as much as 12% of the global labour market, with demand continuing to grow, driven largely by developing nations.

Platforms in India are increasingly paving a path for workers to earn a sustainable living in the informal economy, with businesses and the government expanding good work policies for independent workers.

Recent initiatives demonstrate this commitment: ride-hailing company Ola launched a zero-commission model, allowing drivers to retain 100% of their earnings, while the Union Budget 2025 extended health coverage and digital identity registration to 10 million gig workers through schemes like PM-JAY. At the state level, Karnataka introduced a gig-worker welfare cess, while Telangana and Tamil Nadu are rolling out insurance and mobility subsidies.

But where supportive policies remain absent, challenges persist. A recent bike-taxi ban in Bengaluru has threatened the livelihoods of thousands of riders, igniting protests and prompting renewed calls for formal regulation rather than outright prohibition. This highlights the urgent need for comprehensive regulatory frameworks that balance innovation with worker protection.

Businesses are increasingly coming together to explore what ‘good work’ looks like in the gig economy. The World Economic Forum is supporting businesses to establish best-practice case studies through the Good Work Alliance.

Many economies in Asia are capitalizing on 'shoppertainment' – a hybrid of live-streaming and e-commerce that is growing exponentially in the age of AI.

In a groundbreaking demonstration of AI's potential, two AI avatars of popular Chinese live-streamers generated 55 million yuan ($7.65 million) in sales during a six-hour interactive session, significantly outperforming human-led streams on Baidu’s e-commerce livestreaming platform “Youxuan”.

This trend extends beyond China's borders. In South Korea, influencer marketing spend is expected to reach nearly $490 million in 2025, driven by a highly digital population and the global appeal of K-content. The market demonstrates an annual growth rate of 10.42%, with projections indicating it will reach $727.36 million by 2029.

Meanwhile, Japan is witnessing the rise of virtual influencers like Imma, who has amassed 390,000 Instagram followers and collaborated with luxury brands including Valentino, Fendi, and Balenciaga.

These virtual personalities are shifting traditional business models in the marketing and fashion industries by offering brands new ways to showcase products without the limitations of human spokespeople.

Leaders across the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly using algorithmic management to drive productivity, with the region now leading globally in AI agent adoption. Forrester predicts that 60% of APAC firms will deploy regionally trained large language models by 2025 to cater to diverse linguistic and regulatory environments.

In China, organizations like Yum China, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, are implementing AI systems to manage operations, using tools such as Q-Smart for staffing, inventory management and store inspections. The hands-free AI assistant allows managers to interact with systems through voice commands via wearable devices, optimizing labour scheduling and inventory management while providing real-time operational support.

The implementation of algorithmic management has generated significant controversy, however. Food delivery platform Meituan faced mounting pressure from both regulators and the public, leading to a major policy shift in early 2025. The company announced the end of late-delivery penalties and pivoted towards performance incentives following regulatory crackdowns on algorithm misuse. While this change aimed to create fairer working conditions for delivery riders, it also resulted in stock price volatility.

Concerns persist around opaque performance metrics, the emotional toll of automated scheduling, and the broader implications of algorithmic control over workers' livelihoods.

In the AMNC25 session Pivoting Workforce, the panellists debated whether AI would create large-scale new industries, similar to the internal combustion engine, or primarily automate existing tasks. Future of Work expert, Carl Benedict Frey, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, suggested that AI's impact on economies depends on its use as an enabling technology.

This was echoed in the session Career: Pathways Rewired, where Rahul Attuluri, co-founder and CEO, NxtWave, said disruption would only be short-term and in the long term, there would be an "exponential surge in terms of our opportunities with generative AI".

In China, women are increasingly involved in the AI revolution, as we heard at AMNC25, but gender gaps persist. Globally, women are less likely to reach the C-suite in AI roles, and more likely to have jobs that are being disrupted by automation and GenAI, such as administrative assistants. The jobs they have are less likely to be augmented by AI than those held by men, the Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025 finds.

Asia is not following a single script for the future of work, but it is demonstrating that the world of work is evolving at a rapid pace, with the region at the forefront of this change.

Digital skills have emerged as crucial for companies across the region, though many organizations report significant gaps in these areas. According to the Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, over 60% of employers worry that skills gaps will hamper their ability to prepare for the changing business landscape. This challenge is compounded by the need for workers to adapt to new technologies, with estimates suggesting that two-fifths (39%) of existing skill sets will require transformation.

The World Economic Forum supports this transition through Jobs Accelerators in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines – initiatives designed to support the creation of high-quality job opportunities in the context of evolving global trends. These programmes reflect the recognition that successful workforce transformation requires coordinated efforts between governments, businesses and international organizations to ensure that technological advancement benefits all workers rather than exacerbating existing inequalities.

As discussed at AMNC25, the future of work in Asia presents both unprecedented opportunities and complex challenges that require innovative, collaborative solutions tailored to the region's diverse economic and social contexts.

The pace of AI adoption among workers in the US is accelerating, according to a Gallup survey. As the chart below shows, the percentage of employees using AI across three timeframes – daily, a few times a week and a few times a year – has doubled in the past two years. Adoption has increased primarily for those in white-collar roles.

Exposure to automation does not necessarily mean job loss – automation can augment work, argues MIT economist David Autor. In an analysis of job data spanning 1977-2018, Autor found technology both removes routine tasks and adds expert ones, making certain jobs more specialized. “Proofreading used to mean spell-checking. Now it’s about helping people write,” Autor told the Stanford Institute of Human-Centered AI.

Automation threatens about 620,000 jobs in Malaysia, but it also creates opportunities in emerging roles, writes Steven Sim, the country's Minister of Human Resources. Malaysia is taking a data-driven and collaborative approach to workforce development to manage this change. Beyond employment statistics, the true goal is to preserve human dignity in the face of technological disruption.