The jobs in danger of being replaced by AI

There has always been a fear of technology’s potential impact on society.

The mechanisation of the Industrial Revolution killed off some traditional crafts, but it didn’t lead to the mass unemployment some Victorians predicted.

The computing age abolished switchboard receptionists and typists amid apocalyptic warnings of human obsolescence, before ushering in new careers from programming to graphic design.

It would therefore be understandable if today’s fears about AI and the jobs market were dismissed as hyperbole.

Yet AI is different because it’s replacing human creativity rather than strength or dexterity.

From cartoons to copywriting, software design to accounting, AI and the jobs market seem to be locked together in a death spiral.

It’s not a coincidence that graduate jobs are evaporating just as platforms like CoPilot are automating many of the tasks which entry-level employees used to cut their teeth on.

Nor is it a coincidence that many people are finding themselves unemployed, unemployable or pursuing fewer and fewer freelance opportunities alongside more and more fellow applicants.

These are some of the careers which may be reshaped forever by the melding of AI and the jobs market, followed by a few that should remain largely AI-proof.

On the endangered list

One of the first industries to feel the full force of the generative AI onslaught was writing.

Journalists have been replaced by ChatGPT bots, copywriters are being quietly ignored, and authors are competing against AI-generated books.

Next came related professions like web design and photography. Free AI tools can mock up anything from CGIs and webpages to head shots and marketing materials.

However, AI is spreading its tentacles ever wider, starting with low-level roles like data entry and basic accounting.

Why pay a person to input data or produce marketing materials when AI can do it?

(We’ll come to some of the actual reasons why in a moment.)

Since nothing is better than cheap (or even free) as far as many bosses and shareholders are concerned, the breakneck pace of AI adoption has been warmly welcomed at director level.

And once AI has mastered basic skills, it will undoubtedly encroach into more senior levels of the corporate hierarchy.

The scale of job losses can perhaps best be illustrated in the technology sector, which you might have thought would be insulated against the monster it’s created.

Data published in early September showed 165,000 AI-led layoffs during the first eight months of 2026, at Amazon, Meta, Dell, Dropbox, Ocado, HSBC, IBM…

Job losses have ranged from print and sales through to product teams and service roles. AI is even starting to appear in boardrooms, potentially reducing non-executive or trustee roles.

Where will it all end?

The relationship between AI and the jobs market could presently be described as cannibalistic, but there’s strong evidence that this unequal relationship won’t endure.

For one thing, there is growing backlash against AI, from board members unable to see the promised cost savings through to politicians opposing resource-intensive data centres.

There is also increasing consumer pushback as people in countless industries (often backed by decades of experience) see the corporate ladder being dismantled beneath them.

Meanwhile, the AI companies are labouring under an estimated $3 trillion of debt, often without a viable business model for generating enough profits to repay those debts.

The public is rightly alarmed by stories of AI systems going rogue, hacking each other or disobeying direct orders, and it might only take one major incident to cause a public revolt.

We’re increasingly craving authentic experiences, rather than impersonal AI slop that’s (a) often inaccurate, (b) always impersonal and (c) implies the people who commissioned it took shortcuts.

And while many career paths are at risk, some are largely AI-proof.

An algorithm will never be able to help an elderly person out of a chair or change a puncture. Nor will it be able to fix a leaky pipe, arrest a burglar, clean a floor or serve meals in a café.

For now, almost every desk-based job could be considered at risk, but this situation may not continue for long…