Many examinations of the impact of artificial intelligence on work functions or industries have focused initially on substitution of AI and machines for lower-skilled work. But that does not mean creative and knowledge work will be unaffected. It simply might take more time for AI to become more skilled, allowing it to displace human work, more effectively.
On the other hand, in most industries, AI might actually not displace as many jobs as one might believe, as service jobs, for example, often are highly dependent on humans providing the service, and such jobs represent the majority of jobs in the U.S. economy, for example.
That noted, some job functions are at greater risk of displacement than others.
High Risk (More Susceptible) | Low Risk (Less Susceptible) | Reasoning |
Data Entry & Processing | Creative Fields (e.g., Art, Design, Writing) | Repetitive tasks with clear rules are easily automated. |
Manufacturing (Assembly Lines) | Social & Emotional Intelligence Jobs (e.g., Therapy, Teaching, Management) | AI struggles with tasks requiring empathy, judgment, and human connection. |
Customer Service (Simple Inquiries) | Healthcare (Diagnosis, Treatment Planning) (to an extent) | AI can handle routine inquiries but struggles with complex situations. |
Transportation (Truck Driving) (long-term) | Science & Research | Requires critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving beyond current AI capabilities. |
Telemarketing & Sales (Scripts) | Entrepreneurship & Innovation | AI can personalize some sales tasks, but human interaction is still crucial for complex deals. |
Accounting & Bookkeeping (Basic Tasks) | Legal Services (complex tasks) | AI can automate calculations but struggles with legal interpretation and judgment. |
But optimists sometimes make robust predictions about job and function displacement.
“95 percent of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by the AI, and the AI will likely be able to test the creative against real or synthetic customer focus groups for predicting results and optimizing, Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO has said.
That might be an outlier, as many industry executives seem to take care to position AI as complementary, not a substitute for human work. Commercial considerations seem to be at play, of course. Executives never say anything that diminishes the market potential of the products they sell.
Executive | Company | Prediction |
Satya Nadella | Microsoft | "AI is not taking away jobs. It's creating new categories of jobs." (2018) |
Ginni Rometty | IBM (former CEO) | "AI won't replace us, but it will redefine what it means to be human at work." (2017) |
Andrew Ng, Co-founder, Coursera | "AI will create far more jobs than it destroys. The challenge is making sure everyone has the skills to succeed in the new economy." (2018) | Ng acknowledges job transformation but believes in job creation in the AI era. |
Rosalind Picard | MIT Media Lab | "The future is about humans and machines working together." (2020) |
Eric Schmidt | Former Google CEO | "AI will create more jobs than it destroys." (2016) |
Rosalind Picard | MIT Professor, Affective Computing | "The key is to partner with AI, not compete with it." (2020) |
To be sure, job gains and losses from substitution caused by the internet and automation are not uniform. In content industries, which were disrupted by the internet, some functions were diminished, but many others grew. Newspaper-related jobs shrunk substantially, but graphic designer jobs increased, as did animator and editor jobs.
Industry Segment | Job Change (2000-2024) |
Newspaper Reporters | -66.7% Decline (BLS data approx.) |
Editors | -25.2% Decline (BLS data approx.) |
Graphic Designers | +11.0% Growth (BLS data approx.) |
Film and Video Editors | +14.0% Growth (BLS data approx.) |
Animators and Multimedia Artists | +33.9% Growth (BLS data approx.) |
Musicians and Singers | -6.0% Decline (BLS data approx.) |
Software Developers | +88.1% Growth (BLS data approx.) |
In most industries, employment actually grew between 2000 and 2024, a period when the internet became a platform in many industries.
Industry Sector (2024)
| Estimated Employment (2024 - Millions)
| Estimated Employment (2000 - Millions)
|
Healthcare & Social Assistance | >20 | >10 |
Retail Trade | 15-20 | 18-22 |
Accommodation & Food Services | 13-16 | 12-15 |
Professional & Business Services |
10-13 | 15-18 |
Professional and Business Services Manufacturing | 12-15 | 9-12 |
Education (Public & Private) | 8-11 | 7-10 |
Government | 7-10 | 7-10 |
Transportation & Warehousing | 7-10 | 6-9 |
Finance & Insurance | 6-9 | 6-9 |
Construction | 6-9 | 5-8 |
Leisure & Hospitality
| 5-8 | 4-7 |
Other Services (e.g. Personal Care, Repair)
| 5-8 | 4-7 |
The point is that both skeptics and optimists are likely going to be proven right, in some instances. AI might eliminate jobs in some functions, but not affect trends in other areas. The issue might be how well higher-order functions can be performed by AI, especially in areas not dependent on “service” by human agents.
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