Latest news with #jobreplacement
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
10 Careers AI Will Replace In The Next 5 Years
Experts reveal which jobs AI will and won't replace by 2030 and how you can pivot if your job is on ... More the chopping block. CEOs are already adjusting their hiring strategies as McKinsey projects that 30% of U.S. work hours will be automated by 2030. What skills do you lack? And what skills do you have that will sustain your career until 2030? There are 10 careers AI will replace, along with four skills AI won't replace. But if you find your job on the chopping block, learn how you can pivot and make yourself indispensable in the next five years. 10 Careers AI Will Replace By 2030 Statistics show that AI will replace 300 million jobs, and 41% of companies worldwide plan to reduce their workforce by 2030. The McKinsey Report reveals that acceleration of generative AI is expected to automate an additional eight percent of American workers' work hours across all economic sectors, increasing the overall percentage of automated work hours to around 30%. LiveCareerUK released its Jobs AI Will Replace Report, outlining the 10 careers AI is most likely to replace by 2030. If your job is on the list of those disappearing, the experts suggest a direction for you to pivot 1. Data Entry Clerks. How to pivot: "Re-skill in data analysis or data management Learn Excel, SQL, or Python to shift into roles that interpret and act on data, not just record it." 2. Telemarketers. How to pivot: "Re-skill in digital marketing or customer success Build skills in CRM tools, social media engagement and sales strategy to stay valuable in a human-centered sales role." 3. Basic Customer Service Representatives. How to pivot: "Re-skill in technical support or customer success. Focus on more complex problem-solving roles that require empathy, expertise, and relationship-building.' 4. Retail Cashiers. How to pivot: 'Re-skill in retail management or supply chain operations. Move into areas that require strategic thinking, leadership, or technical know-how in the retail ecosystem.' 5. Proofreaders and Copy Editors. How to pivot: 'Re-skill in content strategy or digital marketing. Leverage your writing instincts in higher-order tasks like brand storytelling, SEO and campaign planning.' 6. Paralegals and Legal Assistants. How to pivot: 'Re-skill in legal tech, compliance or litigation support. Apply your legal knowledge in tech-forward fields that blend law with AI and automation tools.' 7. Bookkeepers. How to pivot: "Re-skill in financial analysis or advisory roles Move beyond basic number-crunching to deliver strategic insights that businesses can act on.'" 8. Fast Food and Restaurant Front-line Workers. How to Pivot: 'Re-skill in culinary innovation or restaurant management. Creativity, leadership and operations knowledge will always be in demand, even if robots flip the burgers.' 9. Warehouse Workers. How to pivot: 'Re-skill in logistics coordination or warehouse technology roles. Learn to operate, oversee, or improve the systems that are replacing repetitive labor.' 10. Entry-Level Market Research Analysts. How to pivot: 'Re-skill in business analytics or data storytelling. Go beyond data collection by learning to turn insights into decisions with tools like Tableau, Power BI or Python.' A Final Takeaway On 10 Careers AI Will Replace As AI reshapes the workforce, there are smart ways to future-proof your career if it's threatened. One consolation is that the most in-demand skills will be human skills that AI simply can't replicate, not technical ones. SHL's chief science officer, Sara Gutierrez, believes skills that are harder to automate such as strategic thinking, creativity, acting ethically and the ability to deliver human-tech collaboration, matter most. 'We're seeing a sharp rise in demand for the ability to critically evaluate and analyze information, generate new ideas and to develop innovative approaches to problems, Gutierrez says. "These are the capabilities that underpin effective use of AI tools and distinguish those who can leverage technology from those who are simply exposed to it. Employees who can effectively use generative AI tools, interpret data outputs and integrate those insights into their workflows are quickly becoming indispensable.' Gutierrez explains that candidates can better demonstrate these skills by going beyond listing skills and showing them in the context of real work. 'That might mean highlighting projects where they had used AI tools to solve business problems or sharing how they adapted during an organizational change,' She points out. "Creating content (e.g., writing, posting, presenting) about how they're learning and applying emerging tools can be especially compelling.' Jon Hinkle, CEO of TRG Datacenters identifies four skills employers will prize most in the coming years that AI can't replace. 1. Conflict Resolution: AI Can't Build Trust. 'Disagreements happen everywhere—between teams, departments, even with clients,' Hinkle says. 'We look for people who know how to de-escalate situations, stay calm under pressure, and find common ground. That soft skill prevents small issues from turning into costly ones." 2. Adaptability: Learning Is the New Experience. 'The difference is how quickly they learn and adapt when something changes—which is almost weekly now.' 3. Leadership: AI Can't Inspire People. Hinkle explains that even with the best tools, people still want to feel connected to a mission. 'A good leader can explain the why, give clear direction, and motivate others when things are uncertain or chaotic. That kind of leadership builds loyalty and performance." 4. Systems Thinking: Connecting the Dots Is a Human Skill. 'Plenty of tools can run an analysis, but very few people can look at the output and say, 'Here's how this impacts our marketing, support, and ops all at once,'' Hinkle insists. 'That big-picture view is what helps us make decisions that actually work." Atalia Horenshtien, head of AI practice at Customertimes, told me by email that if you're concerned that AI will take your job, focus on what AI can't do . . .yet. 'AI will likely replace tasks, not whole jobs, especially those rooted in repetition,' according to Horenshtien. 'What it still can't replicate well: original thinking, emotional intelligence, ethical judgment and complex decision-making. If your role leans heavily on these, double down. If not, it's time to pivot.' To outsmart AI threats to your career, identify the job skills AI will and won't replace. If you find your job to be one of the 10 careers AI will replace, start thinking now how you can pivot so by 2030 you're still indispensable in a job that machines can't mimic.
Telegraph
29-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Stop hiring humans': Customer service under threat as robots take hold
Workers commuting on the London Underground have been confronted with a terrifying message in recent weeks. Scrolling digital adverts, displayed on the Tube's escalators, have urged businesses to 'stop hiring humans' and use artificial intelligence (AI) robots instead. The spooky messages are the work of Artisan, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, which launched the guerrilla-marketing campaign to promote its AI software. But the ads have hit a nerve with London's commuter class, tapping into deep-seated fears that fake human workers are coming for their jobs. Hundreds of businesses across the country are now deploying AI workers instead of people. But instead of a brave new world of efficient robotic workers, there are mounting fears that the increased use of AI and chatbots will simply make things worse for customers and workers. Daniel O'Sullivan, a customer service analyst at Gartner, says consumers have justifiably had concerns about the rise of AI because 'chatbots have historically sucked'. Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, says: 'Not all chatbots are built equally. While some can be helpful, others can send customers round in circles and make it difficult for them to get their issues resolved.' Replacing drudge-work For managers looking to cut costs, the pitch to replace human workers with AI software is compelling. On Artisan's website, it pitches 'your future colleagues' – Aria, Ava and Aaron – and promises customers they can get results 'without increasing headcount'. For now, Artisan is targeting the drudge-work of business sales, helping companies to automate outbound cold emails and the initial conversations with potential clients, work normally done by a very junior sales worker. The start-up is not yet dealing with consumer-facing customer service roles, which Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Artisan's 23-year-old founder, says raise 'more issues' and risks. In the context of a business transaction, there may be little to lose with using AI to automate and personalise thousands of cold call pitches, job adverts or PR emails which may never get opened. But when it comes to interactions with consumers, 'the error rate is too high across the board', Carmichael-Jack says. 'That is why people have this anti-AI sentiment.' That has not stopped hundreds of businesses using AI worker and experimenting with AI customer service, whether the public wants it or not. Dozens of technology businesses have promised AI helpers that can smooth over customer service functions. These include AI bots from start-ups like the UK's PolyAI, which bills its technology as the 'most lifelike' voice agents, to tech giants such as Salesforce and its 'Agentforce' bots. High-profile businesses such as Klarna, the buy now, pay later provider, have already raced to replace jobs once taken by humans with AI bots. A question of quality But so far, these fake humans have produced mixed results. In some cases, companies have completely reversed course. At Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the chief executive, went all in on AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, seeking to swap human-led customer service for AI, dramatically cutting jobs. However, in an interview earlier this year, the Swedish company's boss admitted this AI zeal had not worked out. 'What you end up having is lower quality,' he told Bloomberg, adding that 'investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us'. So far, the public is not sold on the idea that AI agents are going to lead to an improvement in customer service. A survey from Gartner, published last year, found that 64pc of people would prefer it if companies did not use AI in customer service interactions at all, and 60pc feared it would make it harder to speak to a human – putting up an AI middleman. And there are plenty of examples of early attempts at AI-powered customer service getting it wrong. In 2024, a DPD chatbot swore when prompted by users and told customers that 'DPD is useless' and 'don't bother calling them'. In April this year, an AI support bot called Sam for the code editor app Cursor went rogue. After users found a bug within Cursor's service that booted them out when they tried to log in from multiple machines, Sam told customers that this was part of a new policy. Users were not aware that Sam was a bot, leading some to threaten to cancel their subscriptions. And last year, Air Canada was forced to honour a refund after its website's chatbot invented a policy when interacting with a customer. Generative AI-powered chatbots, which are trained to speak in plain English, suffer from a problem known as 'hallucination', whereby the AI will sometimes simply make up information if it does not know the answer. These bugs in customer service bots risk driving consumers away. A survey from customer service firm Acquire Intelligence found that 70pc of consumers would take their business elsewhere if they were let down by a bot. Such errors and risks mean that some companies that were among the first movers to try out AI agents as a replacement for human workers are already winding back. In a survey published this month, Gartner found that half of companies that were planning to replace their customer service staff with AI were considering abandoning the plans. 'AI agents' However, O'Sullivan predicted that rapidly advancing technology and changes in customer expectations mean the shift to AI workers is unlikely to stop completely. 'Perceptions here are changing very quickly,' he says. 'Even in the space of one year, we have people becoming more accustomed to using AI.' He added that when it comes to customer service woes, people want their problem solved, and the 'means through which they solve the issue is not necessarily the most important thing to them'. If bots get more effective than a human, consumers could quickly decide they prefer them to speaking to a real person. If the tech industry is to be believed, this shift is just around the corner. Increasingly advanced 'AI agents' – big tech's latest buzzword – are supposed to be able to take on ever more complex tasks from human workers. While customer support bots once could only provide basic question and answer functionality, agents will be able to draw information from across a business and function more autonomously. 'Customer frustration with traditional chatbots has typically stemmed from the tools' limited capabilities,' says Heidi O'Leary, a partner at Deloitte Digital. 'Agentic AI goes a step further, allowing these assistants to take actions on a customer's behalf – for example, initiating a return or refund without human intervention.' For now, she says the most successful uses of AI in customer service have kept humans in the loop, using AI as a tool to boost the performance of human staff, for instance, by quickly drafting emails or notes. Artisan's Carmichael-Jack says AI bots are 'not currently as effective as a human in a lot of use cases'. But this is rapidly changing, with tech companies building more accurate AI bots and attempting to instil 'reasoning' in them. He expects perceptions of AI employees to 'shift over the next couple of years because we know it is going to get it right'. In the near future, he expects that people would 'rather be put through to AI than to an offshore call centre. People will want to speak to an AI agent and you will be that annoyed if you are put through to a human'.
