AI's Impact on the Job Market: Experts Predict Survival of Unexpected Professions

These Strange Jobs Will Survive AI, Expert Says

Many experts hold that generative AI will have sweeping effects on the job market. But how exactly it will transform the workforce remains a subject of much debate. According to Adam Dorr, the director of research at tech forecast nonprofit RethinkX, we're risking putting all of humanity out of a job -- and only some oddly specific occupations will survive a major transformation. "Technology has a new target in its crosshairs -- and that's us," Dorr told The Guardian. "That's our labor." According to the nonprofit exec, the cost of labor will drop precipitously. "We've seen that pattern before," Dorr told the newspaper. "If I can get the same thing or better for the same or lower cost, switching is a no-brainer. We're the horses, we're the film cameras." It's a foreboding prediction we've heard before. Experts have long warned that AI automation could greatly undermine the value of human labor. Earlier this month, for instance, MIT economist David Autor warned in a podcast interview that AI could lead to a "Mad Max" scenario in which the job market becomes dominated by cheap and commoditized labor, a dystopian alternative to a "super-abundance" long touted by AI boosters. For his part, Dorr argued that "machines that can think are here, and their capabilities are expanding day by day with no end in sight," adding that "we don't have that long to get ready for this." While countless jobs will be on the chopping block, he did flag an oddball assortment that he believes will weather the storm, including "sports coaches, politicians, sex workers, and ethicists." "There will remain a niche for human labour in some domains," he told The Guardian. "The problem is that there are nowhere near enough of those occupations to employ four billion people." Dorr isn't the only one arguing that certain professions could be safer than others from an AI revolution. During a June podcast appearance, "godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton predicted that blue-collar jobs like plumbing will remain safe while careers in call centers or as paralegals could be in serious trouble. The scale of the shift could be enormous. Earlier this month, Ford CEO Jim Farley predicted that AI "is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US." Of course, we should take Dodd's -- and countless other experts' -- predictions with a grain of salt. While executives are frothing at the mouth to start replacing costly human labor with AI, companies are consistently stumbling over roadblocks brought on by the glitchy tech. And if a critical proportion of jobs are replaced by AI, it starts to raise questions about what the economy would even look like after that. Some CEOs are undeterred by those pesky questions. Even if "a lot of jobs go away" and their replacements seem "sillier and sillier looking from our current perspective," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued last month that "we have always been really good at figuring out new things to do, and ways to occupy ourselves." Yet plenty of uncertainty remains, and Dorr is quite upfront about that himself. "I don't have the answers," he told The Guardian. "We don't even know if we have the right questions. We need to experiment now and try out new ownership structures, new stakeholder structures."

Will the AI takeover spare politicians? Expert predicts 3 unexpected careers that could survive by 2045

Adam Dorr of RethinkX forecasts significant job losses by 2045 due to AI. Only roles needing emotional depth may survive. Dorr envisions a future of abundance but warns of extreme inequality without action. Soft skills remain crucial as AI struggles with empathy and ethics. The ethical question is whether we should replace humans, even if we can. In a bold and unsettling forecast, Adam Dorr, Director of Research at RethinkX, has painted a future where most human jobs may no longer exist by 2045. In an interview with The Guardian, Dorr outlined how the relentless pace of AI and robotics development is fast rendering traditional human labor obsolete. According to his research -- based on over 1,500 cases of historical technological disruptions -- AI is following a well-trodden but accelerated trajectory: once a new tech takes hold, it replaces existing systems within 15 to 20 years. This time, the target isn't a tool or a technique -- it's human labor itself. In a twist of irony, the three professions that Adam Dorr believes will withstand the AI onslaught are also among humanity's oldest: politicians, sex workers, and ethicists. Their resilience lies not in resistance to change, but in their uniquely human foundations -- power, intimacy, and morality. Politics has existed in organized form since ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. At its core, governance is about navigating human complexity, building consensus, reading emotional undercurrents, and exercising judgment in unpredictable social environments. Despite advances in AI-generated policy simulation, leadership still hinges on trust, charisma, and interpersonal negotiation -- qualities machines have yet to convincingly replicate. Sex work, often called "the world's oldest profession," similarly depends on human connection, physical presence, and emotional nuance. While AI-powered companionship and virtual intimacy are on the rise, some experts might contend that the core experience of human closeness and vulnerability remains beyond artificial reproduction. Ethicists, meanwhile, hold the moral compass of society. As we usher in powerful technologies capable of reshaping civilization, the need for ethical reasoning and philosophical guidance becomes more urgent -- not less. Machines can process data, but they cannot weigh values, assess right and wrong in grey areas, or guide societies through moral dilemmas that lack precedent. While the prediction is stark, Dorr isn't entirely pessimistic. He envisions a future defined not by scarcity but by "super-abundance," where machines meet most human needs. But such a vision demands urgent and radical changes to how society defines work, value, and ownership. "If we fail to act now," Dorr cautions, "the consequences will be enormous -- economic inequality on a scale we've never seen before." He proposes bold experiments in social structure, such as universal basic income and new models of wealth distribution, to ensure that progress doesn't leave humanity behind. Interestingly, even as machines learn to perform complex medical diagnoses or develop apps on command, they continue to falter in one essential area: soft skills. Emotional intelligence, empathy, collaboration, and ethics -- these remain stubbornly human domains. In a recent USA Today report, HR expert Madeline Mann noted that soft skills are now more important than ever. "It's how people experience you," she said. "That's the edge AI can't replicate." Even in the most technical fields, over 40% of in-demand skills are those AI still can't master, such as critical thinking, adaptability, and authentic human communication. As AI systems inch closer to replacing cognitive labor at scale, the ethical dilemma becomes unavoidable: Just because we can replace humans -- should we? And if we do, how do we preserve dignity, purpose, and human connection in a world run by machines? Perhaps the real question is not about what AI can do, but what we choose to let it do. Because the biggest risk isn't just job loss -- it's losing sight of what it means to be human.