Impact of AI on Jobs

As we explore the impact of AI on jobs in the near future, it’s important to note that one-third of all jobs created in the US in the last quarter-century didn’t exist before. And that was before AI. What new jobs may exist and how AI will change the job and work landscape is today’s hottest topic amongst technologists, economists, philosophers, businesspeople, and religious leaders.

Current forecasts and AI itself posit the automation of all routine tasks such as data entry and analysis, report generation, scheduling, customer service, mail responses, document reviews, meeting summaries, and presentations of information.

Additionally, AI can be used to improve decision-making by processing huge data sets and developing insights beyond humans’ ability to analyze and detect patterns. This enables predictive analytics for sales, hiring, and the analysis of risk, real-time operational adjustments, and optimized resource allocation.

AI enhances communication and collaboration by translating languages in real-time, summarizing meetings and documents, creating emails and proposals, as well as scheduling and coordinating projects large and small.

In summary, AI will not only do work that has historically been performed by humans, but it will also reshape work and the workplace through automation, augmentation, and acceleration of work-based activities, leading to massive increases in productivity.

Current Impact of AI on Today’s Job Market

As AI will impact work through enhanced automation, let us not forget that automation has already resulted in the loss of 1.7 million manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. In light of what experts are projecting, this number will seem tiny in comparison to the future impact of AI. But even today, AI has already impacted the job market. In an article written by Josh Howarth for “Exploding Topics”, he lists the following statistics, demonstrating the early impact of AI on jobs.

• 30% of US companies have replaced workers with AI tools like ChatGPT.

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• From January to early June 2025, 77,999 tech job losses were directly linked to AI.

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• 40% of companies that are adopting AI are automating rather than augmenting human work.

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• 13.7% of US workers report having lost their job to a robot.

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Future Impact of AI on Job Markets

Much is being written about the impact of AI on jobs, with forecasts that say AI will replace as many as 300 million jobs by 2030 and reconfigure many more positions that will remain, but with different areas of focus than before. Howarth says, “As AI tools become increasingly powerful, and with highly anticipated LLM models like ChatGPT 5 likely to be launching for general use soon, more people are at risk of having their job fully automated.”

The projections by experts are staggering. And it’s hard to know if these are reliable forecasts or if predicting what the future holds will require a much more nuanced look. Howarth’s article gathers information from a variety of expert sources, including Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Bloomberg, PwC, the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund, the Pew Institute, MIT, OpenAI, Anthropic, Survey Monkey and many more.

Findings include the forecast of up to 300 million jobs being lost to AI, with up to 47% of workers in the US having their jobs threatened by AI within the next decade, and up to 60% of jobs in advanced economies being at risk of being replaced by AI. Further projections shared by experts include,

• 20 million manufacturing jobs could be replaced globally by automated tools by 2030.

  
  

• 14% of employees will have been forced to change their careers because of AI by 2030.

  
  

• Wall Street expects to replace 200,000 roles with AI in the next 3 to 5 years.

  
  

• 80% of the US workforce could have at least 10% of their tasks impacted by large language models.

  
  

• More than 7.5 million data entry jobs will be lost by 2027, representing the single largest predicted loss of jobs by any profession.

  
  

• 41% of employers worldwide intend to reduce their workforce because of AI in the next five years.

  
  

Let’s look a bit deeper into the types of work and work-related tasks AI is forecast to replace. Howarth shares a number of statistical forecasts of how AI will replace specific work tasks.

• Technology and machines play at least some role in 53% of work tasks.

  
  

• 77% of all jobs include tasks that are highly exposed to AI.

  
  

• 34% of all business-related tasks are already performed by machines.

  
  

• 25% of all work tasks could be done by AI including 46% of tasks completed by administrative roles and 44% of tasks done by workers in legal jobs.

  
  

• 19% of US workers could see more than half of their tasks impacted by AI.

  
  

• Employers think 34% of tasks will be fully automated by 2030.

  
  

• 65% of tasks related to data processing and information could be fully automated by 2027.

  
  

Concern Amongst Workers

Initial responses to these forecasts are widespread concern amongst workers. The Pew Institute surveys show that 52% of workers are worried about AI and that 32% of US workers fear that AI will lead to fewer job opportunities. As many as 24% of workers fear that AI will make their job obsolete, while 43% of workers expect AI to cause their job to significantly change in the next five years. Survey Monkey reports that young workers are 129% more likely to be worried than older workers about AI making their job obsolete, while 52% of people aged 18-24 are worried that AI will negatively impact their future careers.

People’s response to the perceived threat of AI replacing jobs is to undergo retraining. It is estimated by SEO.ai that 120 million workers will undergo some type of retraining due to AI changing business demands over the next three years. Companies are already responding with AI training programs. And even though 84% of employees worldwide are receiving support to learn new AI skills, according to McKinsey, 48% of workers in the US say they want more formal Gen AI training from their organization.

Training workers in AI and the integration of AI to automate work tasks is not cheap. Global consulting firm McKinsey says companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million are adopting AI more quickly than smaller organizations, leading to a future gap in adoption rates between those who can afford it and those who cannot. McKinsey goes on to say that “Widespread adaptation of current automation tech could affect half of the world economy, representing some 1.2 billion employees and $14.6 trillion in wages. For context, $14.6 trillion is larger than the GDP of all countries bar China and the US and is more than three times larger than the third-largest GDP.”

While automation offers significant economic benefits, fully realizing those gains is challenging. Widespread adoption is hindered by various barriers—legal, political, economic, social, technological, and others—that may take decades to overcome. Though many experts believe it will take at least 20 years to automate just half of current worldwide work tasks, Howarth concludes by saying, “With AI still advancing so rapidly, even experts are in disagreement about the exact effect this new technology will have on global employment. On the one hand, AI may well lead to widespread job losses. However, it’s already improving the work lives of millions of employees. On the other hand, AI is set to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. And yet millions of people have already been replaced by robots. Regardless, as AI continues to advance and be adopted, its impact on the global workforce — positive or negative — will only increase.” With such a large-scale impact, we are left to ask ourselves what the rise of AI says about what it means to be human.