30 Roles Facing AI Automation

Jobs replaced by AI in the short, medium, and long term

Oct 18, 2024

Random Observation/Comment #855: AI isn't coming for your job tomorrow, but it's quietly learning how to do it better.

An abstract futuristic landscape with a blend of different work environments such as office desks, warehouses, retail stores, and healthcare settings being gradually taken over by robots, AI screens, and automated systems. In the background, AI-driven machines seamlessly integrate with human workers in various roles, symbolizing the gradual disruption of jobs by AI. The scene should feel both innovative and slightly ominous, suggesting a future where human and AI collaboration is inevitable.

//Generated with Dall-E from my Lists of 30 Writer GPT

Why this List?

AI will disrupt and possibly replaced certain roles. This won't happen immediately, but it's important to think about it's impact to your role. I've split these to short, medium, and long term impacts based on my extrapolation and exploration with how I'm using AI in my everyday life.

The main technical problem is ultimately the reliability of results. At some point, there will be a flip where people will question why certain AI advice wasn't taken given its logic and reasoning depth. Humans will still need to be in the loop in some way, but how many humans? What will become a commodity?

My general feeling is your personal AI Agent (private) will create a public-facing AI Agent that can be prompted with instructions to talk with Company/Service-based AI Agents for collaboration. The conversations between these AIs would be outputted as logs for audits.

For retail and personal use, the “Train your AI” narrative will be about more detailed understanding of the data you own and create. For corporate, the private in-house GPTs will know your products and help with many summarizing and reviewing activities. Eventually, the board member GPT will be able to ask product team GPTs for updates and relevant summaries.

In any case, my original thoughts on flipping of the blue and white collar work might be over exaggerated. What I’m sure of is the “human premium” will be more expensive.

Short-Term Impact (Within 1-2 Years)

SaaS Customer Support - AI chatbots and voice assistants are already replacing frontline support roles in SaaS companies. They’re automating responses to common P2/P3 issues. To keep human in the loop, I think the first step would be to have your AI comb through customer support ticket and suggest which articles should be written and prioritize. We may also see people do the equivalent of pressing ‘0’ immediately to talk with a live person.
Social Media Influencer - Some may argue this isn’t even a real career (or at least the ability to go viral is very slim). The tools for generative AI music, audio, and video are happening so quickly. Faceless YouTube channels with automated trend analysis is already being created. I was able to make this video in under an hour using NotebookLM and Heygen:
Data Entry Clerks - Machine learning algorithms can efficiently handle data processing tasks, which reduces need for manual input of forms. The ingenuity of the Lemonade insurance app was the conversational aspect that lead to specific suggestions. A robust understanding of the fields could make suggestions more dynamic.
Telemarketers - AI-driven sales bots are capable of making calls, engaging customers, and even closing deals without human intervention. There’s the counter-AI work happening with flagging spam calls. I imagine this voting cycle will include a lot of last minute messages encouraging people to vote and sharing policy summaries.
Warehouse Packers - Robots and AI are being used to sort, pack, and ship items, particularly in Amazon warehouses and at Tesla gig factories. I think this is happening much faster than we thought possible.
HR Administrators - The phase of “data hoarding” and “single source of truth” database applications are going to change quickly with corresponding tools and interactive FAQ services. Throw a slackbot into a #faq channel and see your GPT output relevant facts with referenced articles.
Radiology Technicians - AI algorithms are now able to read and interpret X-rays, MRIs, and other medical imaging with high accuracy. The x-ray machines themselves may use the image processing and pattern recognition crossed with a digitized medical history chart can find health issues or even recommend treatment.
Transportation Dispatchers and Logistics - My parents used to run a successful logistics company. While a lot of the lower volume deliveries were cheaper to manage with known trucker contacts, a marketplace AI systems can predict routes, manage schedules, and allocate resources.
Legal Assistants - AI tools can sort through contracts, legal precedents, and documents more efficiently than human paralegals, especially for basic tasks.
HR Recruiters - AI recruitment tools are already screening resumes and conducting initial interview processes, which shifts HR roles to focus on more strategic tasks and human-premium interviews to evaluate more on likeability and team cohesiveness.
Administrative Assistants - AI agents or personal assistants can review your emails, telegram chats, and slack messages to schedule meetings, respond to emails with drafts, book flights, and manage daily tasks. At the moment, my Clembot is already ingesting some dynamic data and making suggestions in drafts across multiple applications.
Creative Writers and Editors - AI is already being used to write content, and future improvements could automate much of the creative writing process, especially for commercial work.
Translators and Live Transcription - The latest Meta Connect conference showed off these cool glasses with embedded live translations from the LLM as well as a ton of other features for image and video recognition (Google Glass was way ahead of its time). You can choose to read and speak the terms out loud or it could speak them to users. Accessibility features have truly come a long way.

Medium-Term Impact (2-5 Years)

Marketing Managers - AI tools can predict consumer trends, create marketing campaigns, and optimize ad placements, reducing the need for human marketing strategists. We have already seen a much leaner team.

Accountants - AI can process financial statements, tax returns, and audits much faster. It can ingest unstructured data and fill out the appropriate auditable spreadsheets for human review. I’m hoping all taxes are just automated.
Pharmacy Technicians - Robots can fill prescriptions and handle customer service through kiosks similar to fast food ordering cashiers.
Insurance Underwriters - AI models analyze risk data more accurately than humans, but they can also making them ideal for underwriting policies with fewer human interventions.
Financial Analysts - We already have algorithmic trading and very detailed apps around and making predictions more quickly and accurately than human analysts, but the wider availability of these for retail users could lead to bias moves in the market.
Travel Agents - AI is already optimizing travel itineraries, booking flights, and providing customer service, reducing the demand for human travel agents with SaaS products. The AI Travel agent may be more proactive by reviewing your schedule, available vacation days for work, restrictions (e.g. family friendly, dietary, mobility), and conversations about travel destinations, which leads to a suggested set of travel itineraries.
Software Developers - AI is becoming adept at writing code, debugging, and even developing applications, meaning fewer human developers may be needed in the future. The developer experience is going to change drastically as we may focus much more on scaled deployment DevOps and surrounding services.
Project Managers - If I’m already using a Zoom AI type of summary for notes then a single program manager may be able to cover more combined initiatives. The weekly progress summaries may already be written and pull progress from github pull requests, JIRA tickets, and content created in Google Drive. If my personal AI assistant matures further, it may be able to attend my meetings and present my latest content.
News Anchors - The younger generation is already consuming their media through shorter form content creators, so I wouldn’t be surprised if news itself becomes an AI generated video summary of my news feed.

Long-Term Impact (7+ Years)

Board Members - If all board members are using AI tools for some data gathering and decision making then perhaps their opinions may be skewed by a company-wide enterprise AI that stays updated on treasury holdings, product release roadmaps, and company earnings. The AI Board member may be a mandatory advisor with access to more detailed live metrics.
Truck Drivers - Autonomous vehicles, especially in logistics and long-haul trucking, are expected to take over driving jobs. If you own a Full Self Driving (FSD) vehicle, you may be able to recuperate costs as a driverless taxi. I hope my child doesn’t need to learn how to drive.
Doctors (General Practitioners) - While AI won’t replace doctors entirely (we like the bedside manner), AI tools are improving diagnostics and treatment plans, potentially reducing the role of GPs over time. If we solve for healthcare properly, our AI Agent may notice changes in our voice patterns or include additional IOT information from your Apple watch to suggest specific doctor visits.
Judges and Arbitrators - AI is expected to play a role in analyzing legal cases and delivering judgments based on previous case data, although human oversight will remain crucial.
Teachers and Life Long mentors - AI-based education platforms could eventually replace teachers for certain subjects, offering customized learning plans and instant feedback to students. I whole heartedly believe that my daughter will have a mentor that continues to monitor learning new skills and completing goals.
Psychologists and Therapists - AI chatbots and virtual counselors are already assisting with mental health care, and future advancements could make AI a viable option for therapy.
Scientists - AI-driven research platforms are advancing scientific discovery, from formulating hypotheses to conducting experiments, which could eventually disrupt traditional research roles.
Actors - This will take a bit more time even though AI video face swapping is actually quite advanced already. Voice cloning is already scary good. The budget and timelines for “good CGI” will probably be replaced by live renderings of storylines from different perspectives. Maybe some popular movies start to migrate into interactive AR/VR/XR AI gaming experiences.