Just years ago, most of us treated dystopian sci-fi like Ex Machina and Bladerunner as pure thought-provoking entertainment because technology hadn’t really wowed us. But now, with OpenAI’s recent breakthrough, those catastrophic fictional worlds feel scarily closer to home. The apocalypse of AI takeover? Perhaps it’s getting closer.
Before AI robots decide to take on the evil path of utterly destroying humanity, the more imminent and graver threat for humans may be AI taking our jobs, especially for white-collar workers.
In this article, you can find the list of jobs that are most likely to be displaced by AI according to ChatGPT and similar career paths we recommend to go for to remain relevant in the future.
Most endangered jobs in an AI-led world
First things first, let’s not let our imagination run too wild. Instead of seeing AI as deux ex machina (Latin for God from the machine), use ChatGPT as the basis of your reasoning. Compared to humans, ChatGPT is exceptionally good at consuming and breaking down large chunks of information, understanding and analysing data, and identifying trends and predicting outcomes. Jobs that entail these analytical and formulaic tasks, therefore, are most likely to be displaced.
Here’s a list of jobs under threat from an AI takeover:
Tech
Coder, Junior Programmer, Web Developer, Software Testers, Cybersecurity Analyst, Network and Computer Systems Administrator
Communication
Translator, Reporter, Writer for News Aggregator Websites, Sub-editor
Marketing
Market Research Analyst, Digital Advertiser, Social Media Manager, Email Marketer, SEO Specialist, Technical Writer, Copywriter, Junior Product Description Writer, Performance Marketing Manager
Finance
Financial Analyst, Personal Financial Advisor, Accountant, Trader, Bookkeeper
Sales
Customer Service Officer, Customer Feedback Analyst
Administration
Data Entry Clerk, Personal Assistant
Alternative career paths that remain undisrupted by AI
Thankfully, there’re still plenty of similar job roles you can go for, and they require minimum upskilling. There’s no point competing against ChatGPT to perform formulaic and routine tasks as it is actuated by data from the world’s biggest library – the Internet.
The good news is that AI is not flawless (at least not now). Human creativity and originality cannot be automated. The so-called “creativity” we’ve seen in AI so far is rather derivative, and that’s why jobs that showcase any human qualities have a higher chance of outliving the rest. Here’s the list of alternative jobs you can consider:
Tech
Try: UX Designer, User Interface Designer, AI developer
Alarmingly, tech giant Google revealed earlier that ChatGPT would be able to land an entry-level (Level 3) programmer position at Google with an annual salary of £151,127 ($183,000). And we all know ChatGPT is just the beginning of the AI revolution. ChatGPT’s huge potential to take over developers’ jobs sounds uncannily similar to Mary Shelley’s tragic tale Frankenstein – where the scientist’s own creation “the Monster” leads to his own downfall.
Ironic and upsetting as it is, there’s no need to despair. Even though AI can write code faster and more accurately, it still lacks the intuition to interpret business values or invent new code. UX Designer, User Interface Designer, and roles that utilise AI technology remain highly sought-after.
Communication
Try: Localisation Specialist, Translation Proofreader, Investigation Reporter, Columnist
I guess we can all agree that AI knows more vocabulary, slang, and language than humans. Despite this innate advantage, their accuracy is often hit or miss because they’re sometimes incapable of understanding the full context. Therefore, we still need localisation specialists and translation proofreaders for clarification.
On the editorial end, junior reporters that don’t need to interview others, and journalists working for publications where the number of outputs is more important than the quality could be replaced because ChatGPT can write faster and produce more content. The takeover has already started, withBuzzfeed announcing plans to utilise ChatGPT to enhance its content.
On the other hand, those who love journalism to death, go for in-depth journalism such as investigative reporting, magazines and column writing. Robots can’t interpret human emotions accurately in interviews and they are not trained to ask the right follow-up questions. Another irreplaceable advantage is that humans are biased, and having a stance matters when it comes to opinion articles and columns. Who really wants to read an absolutely neutral and pacifist-style news article?
Marketing
Try: Influencer Marketing Strategist, Head of Marketing, Advertising Copywriter, Art Director, Content Writer, Public Relations Officer
While the bot is capable of writing natural-sounding answers in various styles and forms, ultimately, it can be boiled down to paraphrasing and repetition. It is incapable of drafting original content like humans, and that’s why writing jobs that summon fresh and out-of-the-box ideas such as Advertising Copywriters, Content Writers, and Art Directors will still thrive in an AI-powered world.
Many mid to senior-level marketing jobs nowadays look for someone who is capable of using metrics and tools to monitor, track and analyse the market and measure campaign performance. If that’s your core duty, your job will die out because AI can do it better and faster. That said, don’t forget there’s also a part of marketing where success highly depends on human interactions and building human relationships, for example, Influencer Marketing Strategist and Public Relations Officer. These kinds of roles can never become obsolete.
Finance
Try: Relationship Manager, Credit Risk Manager
AI robots know numbers better than humans, and they don’t make numeric mistakes because they don’t get sore eyes after staring at the computer all day. Finance jobs primarily based on numeric analysis, such as Accountant, Broker, will cease to exist.
However, finance roles requiring social talents, such as Relationship Manager and Credit Risk Manager, won’t go extinct because robots are generally incapable of learning social cues or interpreting human emotions.
Sales
Try: Art Gallery Sales, Client Account Manager, Business Account Manager, Retentions Advisor
Junior customer service roles will be eliminated for sure, Amazon has already proved that. Some Amazon employees tested ChatGPT and reflected that the bot did a very good job of answering customer support questions, was great at drafting training documents, and is very strong at answering queries around corporate strategy.
That said, many sales deals can’t be done with offline communication, and to turn a conversation into a multimillion-pound deal requires empathy and persuasion skills, which can’t be programmed.
Interested in these future-proof roles? Check out all the job openings available in the UK.
Read more: ChatGPT ghostwrites the most difficult and tedious work tasks