Predictions: How AI is Transforming Career Paths

AI Jun 7, 2024

“I want to pursue UX, but I’m afraid AI will take over.”—That’s what the user said on Reddit.

“I’m afraid AI will take over all the writing too!”—And that’s another cry of exasperation echoed by the Threads user.

Such apprehensions plague and distress many people: 77% fear being replaced by AI in workplaces. Some claim the so-called AIpocalypse is approaching the career market. Others say even if it’s coming, it’s not that dreadful. It’s even helpful (e.g., take ChatGPT, which assists with literally anything).

So, how will artificial intelligence change the future of work? What if AI’s robotized, “grubby hands” are already stretching to steal your job or cut off your preferred career pathway?

Let’s enumerate the professions that might be in danger of extinction or heavy AI transformations and enlist some new ones rising like waves in the ocean of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Afterward, learn how to survive and thrive with AI impacting jobs and careers.

Read the forecasts and scroll further to the tips.

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Predicting AI Changes in the Job Market

McKinsey reckons 400–800 million people may be substituted by artificial intelligence and automation and will have to look for new job opportunities by 2030.

It seems no occupation is safe from AI. However, some careers undergo more drastic modifications than others. Let’s see which exactly. Then, move on to freshly-baked job prospects from AI’s oven you can consider for your professional development.

The Most Impacted Jobs by AI

The most vulnerable career paths in front of AI appear in the following industries:

Information technology (IT)
Manufacturing and warehousing
Customer support
Finance
Writing and journalism

Let’s take a deeper dive into each.

IT area

The highly impacted jobs by artificial intelligence in the IT sector may be as follows:

Software engineer
Computer programmer
Web developer
UX/UI designer
Video game creator
Manual tester
QA engineer, etc.

In fact, one in three developers fear AI will replace them. And here’s why. AI can automate coding, bug detection, software testing, etc. Yet, more creative or complicated tasks will go to humans. So, these jobs will adapt but not vanish from the career development radars.

Customer support

A seismic AI shift in the job market will specifically impact customer support jobs. Consider this. Artificial intelligence is expected to manage 95% of customer interactions in the next five to ten years.

How exactly?

Thanks to AI-powered voice assistants and chatbots. For example, one CEO replaced 90% of support staff with a single AI chatbot!

Warehousing and manufacturing

AI robots and automatic systems can efficiently perform repetitive tasks, spot defects, and optimize resources and workflows in warehouses and manufacturing companies.

That’s why the following jobs may be under threat of AI:

Assembly line workers
Machine operators
Production planners and schedulers
Quality control inspectors
Logistics operators
Supply chain managers, etc.

Oxford Economics estimates that AI-powered robotics will likely replace 20 million manufacturing roles by 2030.

For example:

Foxconn, a gigantic electronics manufacturer, has already followed this replacement tendency and reduced the workforce from 110,000 to 50,000 factory workers, automating their tasks with artificially intelligent robots.

Source

Financial sector

Finance careers like bankers, accountants, or bookkeepers will have to coexist smoothly with AI, taking over some of their responsibilities.

Like in other industries, AI will automate routine, manual financial tasks (data entry, transaction processing, reconciliation, etc.).

Meanwhile, accountants and bookkeepers will rather concentrate on strategic planning and advisory services, leveraging AI to their advantage. Gartner says over 40% of finance workers will have to adjust to new technologies like AI bots and ML algorithms by 2025.

Journalism and writing

Artificial intelligence won’t entirely eradicate human writers and journalists because it lacks the emotion, judgment, and creativity critical to texts.

However, the study shows it may win the human vs. AI-generated content battle, whether blog posts, product descriptions, or social media copies.

Organizations have already started leveling up their business games with AI-powered rewording tools or copywriting solutions, such as Copy.ai, Article Forge, Vondy AI or WordAI.

The Least Impacted Jobs by AI

The least AI-transformed careers lie in:

Driving
Cooking
Nursing
Caregiving
Maintenance and repair
Teaching
And other jobs that are less susceptible to AI’s influence.

Source

It’s also worth mentioning that some industries successfully find equilibrium and maintain this midpoint.

For example:

Let’s examine the travel and hospitality landscape. Its AI market is projected to grow by 9.7% annually and surpass $1.2 billion by 2026.

However, Tim White, Founder at milepro, points out the sector will still require a healthy balance between AI technology and the human element.

He explains, “Travelers can already use smart booking assistants, baggage handling systems, or robotized self-service kiosks for quick and easy check-ins. At the same time, human personnel are there to warmly welcome guests, address their unique needs and preferences, and provide personalized assistance.

No AI can demonstrate an understanding and emotional support similar to humans.”

New AI Career Pathways Emerging on the Horizon

The World Economic Forum predicts that interest in AI/ML specialists will jump by 40% in the coming years, resulting in more than 97 million new AI-related professions on the career market.

As of today, the most groundbreaking roles with average annual salaries in artificial intelligence and ML are as follows:

Machine Learning Engineer ($150,000–$160,000)
ML Data Linguist ($90,000–$120,000)
AI Roboticist ($100,000–$130,000)
AI Data Analyst ($90,000–$130,000)
AI Chatbot Developer ($80,000–$100,000)
AI Research Scientist ($140,000–$170,000)
And more!

Google, Amazon, Meta, Intel, and Apple are the top five companies that are hunting for AI and ML talent. For instance, if you search for career opportunities at Amazon, you can see 109 open jobs in the Amazon AI department.

Source

And there are nearly 300 AI career paths once you scroll through Apple’s jobs.

Source

As we have mentioned before, AI hasn’t left any industry unaffected, whether in healthcare or law.

When asked about AI careers in the legal sphere in particular, Jonathan Feniak, General Counsel at LLC Attorney, commented, “With the rise of ethical and legal concerns in artificial intelligence, there has been a tremendous surge in the demand for AI Law Consultants, AI Policy Consultants, AI Legal Analysts, and similar positions.

Their job responsibilities include dealing with AI regulations and tackling AI-related issues like biases, discrimination, privacy, intellectual property, etc.”

How to Survive the AI Shift in Career Development

Discover how to pivot, upskill, and succeed in an AI-dominated workplace. Explore expert insights on embracing AI for your career growth rather than treating it as a hazard.

Master AI skills

Grant Aldrich, Founder of OnlineDegree.com, argues it will be much easier to step into the future of work with AI if you acquire a relevant skill set.

He recommends, “Getting ready to dive into the epicenter of the AI job revolution, you should kit up with fundamental AI skills by enrolling in AI programs, courses, and certifications.

They may serve as beneficial bonuses when your employer brings artificial intelligence to the workplace, or you decide to reshape your career with AI altogether.”

Indeed, there has been a five-fold boost in the request for AI-vital skills among employers since 2015.

Among them:

Deep learning and neural networks
Prompt engineering
Big data analysis
Data modeling
Robotics
Cybersecurity
AI problem-solving, etc.

With these “trophies” in your skill collection, you can consider looking for a new role in tech with artificial intelligence.

Alternatively, it may be simple upskilling.

For example, let’s assume you’re a UX/UI designer. At this rate, you may need to upskill by gaining expertise in AI design apart from traditional design skills.

Or if you are a graphic designer, you might want to add some AI design tools like AI logo maker to your workflow.

By the way, if you search LinkedIn, you’ll find 3,000+ AI Designer jobs. And that’s merely in the United States.

Source

Give priority to soft skills and be ready for everything

What will artificial intelligence be capable of tomorrow? And what about AI’s perspective in five or ten years?

We can only express our guesses. AI advancement is faster than a wink. That’s why the job market is becoming immensely unpredictable. Under these circumstances, you must sharpen your soft skills like a blade.

The most critical are:

Empathy
Communication
Teamwork
Ethical judgment
Flexibility

They can become your major differentiators when looking for your dream job in the AI-infused career market.

Then, there’s a universally applicable skill worth honing in light of AI’s transformative power in career development.

Roman Zrazhevskiy, Founder & CEO at MIRA Safety, calls this quality “preparedness for anything” and remarks, “Before AI knocks on your job site’s door, it would be wiser to play a proactive game not to let it catch you off guard.

So, today, your strategic moves are to master the art of being ever-ready, exercise in rapid decision-making, and prepare plans B and C for possible shifts in your career path with artificial intelligence.”

Explore human-centric realms

Human-centric jobs are safer from AI changes due to inherent human touch and emotional intelligence. The reason is quite apparent: these competencies are challenging for artificial intelligence to replicate.

You can find such professions in:

Management (team leader, manager, event planner)
Education (teacher, professor, tutor)
Law (lawyer, judge)
Customer service (cashier, customer care specialist, patient coordinator)
Entertainment (actor, musician)
Healthcare (nurse, caregiver), etc.

Thomas Medlin, Co-founder at JumpMD, believes they will never fade out of the job market, even with AI transforming it actively and persistently. He says, “Being minimally endangered by artificial intelligence, human-focused job roles are well worth settling into. They are here to stay. There’s good proof for that based on human psychology. On the psychological level, an individual always seeks a sense of belonging and interpersonal contact with another human.”

Cultivate an innovative (and creative!) mindset

For Gerald Lombardo, Head of Growth at Popl, an innovative-thinking employee is “a treasure that cannot be replaced even by billions of AIs.”

He also said, “When you develop an innovative mindset and indulge in out-of-the-box thinking, artificial intelligence won’t be your competitor but rather a reliable tool for accomplishing your original tasks. Imaginative thinking can help you generate new ideas and drive innovations.

Creativity becomes a uniquely human skill in a world where AI excels at routine tasks. It shines brighter among other valuable competencies in the workplace of the future.”

Gerald Lombardo shared his recipe for innovation and creativity, aged on years of experience in driving digital transformation at the company:

Dedicate 30 minutes daily to learn about cutting-edge technologies
Practice brainstorming sessions
Enroll in innovative workshops
Network with professionals from different industries
Challenge your mind with a cross-disciplinary study

Regarding the latter, you can tap into a different field to challenge yourself and test your agility. For instance, if you’re in education management, you might want to delve into the Metaverse.

It can later prompt you to create a learning environment outside the classroom, namely in the virtual space (the Metaverse), and launch an immersive digital school. Just an idea. But why not?

Set your clock to AI’s time

Yep, we live in the epoch of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

You can’t ignore it or hide from it even if you want to. Instead, Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, advises to “Befriend AI and stay in tune with it. Wherever the AI trend turns, tweak your role and career growth while keeping pace with it.”

Suppose you build a career as a marketer. Have you considered using your creative genius in combination with AI? Let artificial intelligence nudge you gently in your innovative marketing decisions: AI-generated emails, AI-powered ads, AI influencer campaigns, etc.

Here’s another example:

Let’s say you devote yourself to the human resources job. As an HR manager, you must synchronize with AI to hire faster and learn how to engage candidates more effectively with the help of AI tools. Otherwise, you can be displaced by those who have already adapted and started using them.

And Lastly, Use AI’s Potential to Land Your Next Job!

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