With the rise of AI, AI disruption will eliminate or fundamentally transform several human occupations.
Studies suggest that up to 30% of jobs in the U.S. could be impacted by AI and automation in some capacity over the next decade according to statistics from the WEF (World Economic Forum), and a similar range between 23-29% of careers could be impacted globally.
The top 4 careers that would be eliminated completely for people by 2030 includes
- Customer Service Reps & Telemarketers.
- Bank Tellers.
- Cashiers.
- Secretarial workers
“Honorable Mention:” Accounting & Bookkeeping Clerks.
Approximately 90% of work in those fields can be managed almost entirely by current LLM systems, and many companies are shifting to using AI for those fields to cut costs.
On a different note, there are a couple jobs that won’t go away for humans completely, but will be tougher to get because they’re considered “hybrid” jobs that have functions split between humans and AI. At least 30-50% of current global fields have tasks that are partially automatable, creating a hybrid environment. These fields include but aren’t limited to administrative work for those in the medical and psychological fields, aspects of writing, and mild tech work. Sometimes people in hybrid fields are falsely accused of using AI for their work in general when they actually didn’t use AI at all or not to the extent they’re accused of, and people entering hybrid fields should be aware of those accusations.
Less than 10% of existing careers will never be touched by AI at all or to a major extent and are considered “AI proof,” and of that 10%, only 5% are completely free of AI while the other 5% only incorporates it in tinier amounts compared to hybrid careers. AI proof jobs include trades such as plumbing, carpenting, and construction work as well as jobs that mainly require complex problem-solving, empathy, creativity, and/or high-touch by humans such as aspects of technological work, non-administrative aspects of medical+psychological work, first responders, HR work, teaching, and high-level creative directors+strategists.
The Empathy Premium: Valuing Human Skills
While still on the topic of AI-Proof careers, we briefly delve into the main factors of why AI-Proof careers have remained AI proof in the first place and that has to do with skill sets that machines are unable to replicate such as empathy and true creativity for instance. Current LLMs can make light and shallow creative projects, but they can only do so with existing prompts and are unable to make truly original deep projects on their own. Human empathy is another major factor that AI cannot mimic and it’s a skill required for many AI proof careers to varying degrees. Furthermore, while white-collar administrative work is under threat, vocational fields that require unique physical dexterity and on-site context as well as other services where the human element cannot be digitalized are increasing in demand and are seeing stable or growing demand and wages. The demand toward AI-proof careers marks a major global shift in career priorities.
