Jobs Lost To AI Won't Return, Here's How To Find Your Next Career Move
Woman laid off from job
A year ago, a friend of mine—a communications leader with two decades of experience—was laid off from her marketing role. She's since applied to hundreds of roles she's qualified for, only to find herself stuck in endless queues of applicants. Another friend, a former creative director at a once-prestigious agency, was recently let go—after months of slowly dismantling his own team. While his position wasn't directly replaced by AI, the work his agency once relied on—branding, content, creative production—was already vanishing. Why hire a team when you can generate images, headlines, and entire campaigns with a few prompts?
These stories aren't outliers. Since ChatGPT launched, freelance writing job postings have dropped 30% and graphic design gigs by nearly 20%, according to an analysis of 1.4 million listings on sites like Fiverr, Upwork and Freelance.com. In some cases, according to the BBC, entire editorial teams have been reduced to a single manager overseeing AI-generated content. Many companies now pair senior engineers with AI coding assistants instead of hiring junior staff. Microsoft recently laid off 6,500 people—40% of them developers—while announcing that AI writes 30% of its code.
The standard job-search advice—network more, polish your résumé, apply widely—assumes the jobs you're seeking still exist in meaningful numbers. What happens when they don't?
Just last week, Dario Amodei, CEO of leading AI company Anthropic, predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, potentially spiking unemployment to 20%. "Most people are unaware this is about to happen," he warned. 'It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it.'
Unlike previous technological disruptions that primarily affected manual labor, AI targets cognitive and creative work once thought uniquely human. And the pace is unprecedented: AI capabilities are estimated to double every six months, far faster than workers can retrain or markets can adapt.
These AI-driven layoffs are only the beginning. Companies like Canva now require employees to prove a task can't be done with AI before requesting new headcount. Startups are racing to build AI agents that can do the work of entire teams, instantly and at a fraction of the cost. The tipping point, Amodei warns, may be just months away.
To address this shift in the career landscape, we need systemic solutions that match the scale of disruption. Amodei proposes a "token tax"—redistributing a small percentage of AI-generated revenue to displaced workers. It's bold, acknowledging that we can't stop this transformation, but might be able to steer it toward shared benefit rather than concentrated wealth.
Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn's Chief Economic Opportunity Officer, recently argued in the New York Times that we must also reimagine what entry-level jobs look like, as the bottom rung of the career ladder—junior developers, paralegals, customer service associates—is being rapidly replaced by AI. He calls for a redesign of entry-level roles so that they go beyond repetitive tasks AI can handle, and instead teach adaptability, critical thinking, and collaboration.
While companies and governments scramble to address this shift at the systems level, individual jobseekers are left to navigate a disrupted job market. What should they do, when the old career advice needs updating?
I've long advised people to find the intersection of what they're good at, what they're passionate about and where they're needed. However, the answer to 'where am I needed?' has become more of a moving target as we undergo this AI-driven transformation. A better question now might be: "where will humans remain essential?"
Fields like healthcare, skilled trades, and roles requiring emotional intelligence and face-to-face interactions may offer more stability. Many of these roles provide opportunities to re-skill and do paid work at the same time, which makes them accessible options for career pivots. Here are just a few ideas that are at less risk of AI disruption, based on passion and skill profiles:
Another way to create career resilience when single industries face AI disruption is through portfolio careers, which combine multiple income streams. This career diversification approach recognizes that people often have several different passions and skillsets, and offers the opportunity to piece together multiple side hustles, gig jobs or freelancing clients to make ends meet.
The uncomfortable truth is that many displaced workers won't find equivalent roles in their former fields. But acknowledging this reality isn't pessimistic–it's the first step toward forging new career paths, and building an economy that works for humans in an age of artificial intelligence.
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