If AI is such a powerful tool that is taking over many industries, then shouldn't jobs be affected by that? Should we be bracing for a spike in unemployment?

Probably not.

What we might need to anticipate is a spike in demand for highly skilled workers, both in terms of physical and mental labor — such as hair stylists and construction workers, but also higher-level professional roles like executives, even if the nature of that demand differs.

Think back to the Industrial Revolution. Before then, most products were made by individuals or small groups who used their skills to craft custom handmade goods. The invention of the assembly line and machinery shifted the workforce into two main groups: factory workers, who mainly performed repetitive, low-skill tasks, and "white collar" professionals, such as accountants and business owners.

Now, we are seeing the start of a similar, yet somewhat reversed shift. No longer is it common for 20-somethings to land entry-level corporate jobs. Many in that age range face a troubling reality — a shortage of job openings. AI is slowly replacing the routine, entry-level work at the bottom of the corporate ladder. So where do they go?

The clear answer going forward is to fill the gap in blue-collar work. A staggering 20% of 20–24 year olds were working in such jobs in 2024. Unfortunately, this still isn't enough — roughly 400,000 blue-collar jobs are sitting unfilled. To make this path even more appealing, 47% of skilled tradespeople earn more than the median college graduate.

So is this not an easy choice? It seems straightforward: skip college, complete an apprenticeship or vocational program, and enter one of those fields. But many people already hold college degrees, and the sunk cost fallacy leads them to keep searching for jobs that may no longer exist.

All in all, humans are stubborn creatures, but adaptable all the same. To not only survive but thrive in this new era of AI, we must broaden our definition of success in the workforce.

The current media narrative is that nearly every job is in danger of being taken over by Artificial Intelligence, with perhaps the exceptions of “blue-collar” work and, according to some sources, the work done by Neurodivergents, whose thinking patterns are unlike those of the average person. While there may be some truth in that statement, it fails to acknowledge an integral piece of information about corporate America.

According to some experts, most jobs do not need to exist for society to function. In fact, many jobs could disappear, and it would go almost entirely unnoticed. In the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, the anthropologist theorizes that over half of societal work is not only pointless but also psychologically destructive, as it forces workers to pretend their work is not as pointless as they know it to be. In this book, written in 2018, he says that the work is considered “bullshit” if society were no worse off without it, or if it were not even notice its absence.

Considering this theory is eight years old and predates AI, I think it is all the more relevant in today's day and age. If the job could not have existed then, then all the more so now, when its limited practicality and functionality could easily be taken over by artificial intelligence. This speaks to an underlying layer of human psychology that we will most likely see play out even more in the years to come.

While no person wants to work a pointless 9-5, jobs give people purpose. No matter how much you enjoy or despise your job, most people would rather sit on the beach sipping pina coladas. But the beach gets boring, and vacation is a reprieve from life, not a life in itself.

This is not what people really want; it's what they think they want. Rather, it would be much more accurate to say that we should give people more jobs in which they find fulfillment, and for fewer hours a day.

If you dream of being a chef, that should be a feasible career path, regardless of your life circumstances. By instituting this, the currently untapped potential of many will be able to be used for the good of all, and the fulfillment of dreams for many.