What Are YOU Going To Do WHEN AI Comes For You?
- Profit
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
It's Not A Matter of IF, Because AI Will Replace You!
Artificial Intelligence is here, and it’s quietly elbowing workers out of their desks. If you’re a jobseeker, a middle-aged worker, or someone worried about AI gobbling up jobs faster than you can say “automation,” you’re not alone. This isn't the invention of the car putting the "horse-and-buggy" industry out to pasture - with slowly emerging technology changing work availability in other industries eventually. Mass AI implementation across every industry concurrently is more like Godzilla trampling Tokyo, King Kong devouring NYC, while a meteor shower destroys the next 100 biggest cities simultaneously! Where can you turn for refuge? The supersonic rise of AI in the workplace threatens to replace many roles in nearly every industry, all at once. What happens when everyone is destitute - without the hope of providing for themselves - at the same time? Two words: French Revolution.
Scary Statistics
Impacted Roles (Last 5–10 Years):
Administrative/Finance: 28% of billing and scheduling roles and 34% of repetitive finance jobs in some regions have been automated. Not-so Fun Fact: 34% of eliminated "repetitive finance jobs" represents 2,754,000 Americans flooding the job market in finance alone! Is it realistic to think tens of millions of displaced American workers from nearly every sector in a short span of time will all be retrained in AI machine learning? How many AI jobs do you think will be available? Far, far less than you think! If many roles AREN'T phased out of existence by AI to save Corporate America significant money on labor costs, then automation isn't doing it's job!
Creative & Tech: Roles like computer graphic artists, photographers, and writers have seen declines of up to 33%. Not-so Fun Fact: Do you want to lose the human touch in art? Full-time, permanent, creative jobs are already scarce! There aren't enough server jobs in all of America for displaced creatives to find work while being "retrained".
Manufacturing: Robotics and AI have replaced approximately 270,000 jobs in this sector. The Midwest has already lost it's manufacturing relevance long ago, to the point the whole region has the unpleasant nickname of the "Rust Belt". Not-so Fun Fact: 270,000 people losing their jobs is approximately akin to the entire populations of Reno, NV and Scottsdale, AZ all being unemployed.
Key Trends:
Younger Workers: Workers aged 18–24 are 129% more likely to worry about AI obsolescence, with entry-level jobs particularly vulnerable. Not-so Fun Fact: Gen Z and Younger Millennials already can't get on the corporate ladder to fund important life milestones like buying their first house or ability to pay for children. After AI gobbles up entry-level work, younger generations will have live with their parents until they are eligible for their AARP memberships!
Long-Term Projection: Up to 30% of all existing roles could be at risk of automation in the next 15 years. Not-so Fun Fact: Think America is beset with social unrest now! Wait until nearly 1/3 of Americans are unemployed at the same time. Thousands of desperate applicants for ONE or a few job openings will also cause a downward wage spiral - due to the immutable laws of supply and demand!
But before you start sharpening your resume for a career as a professional couch potato, let’s talk about practical ways individuals, society, and governments can push back against this robotic takeover.
5 Ideas to Shield Workers from AI Job Stealing Robots!
Here are 5 strategies to bolster your financial viability before AI uproots the workplace and workforce as we know it...
1. Invest in Lifelong Learning, Skill Upgrading, and Retraining
Artificial Intelligence changes the game constantly. What’s hot today might be obsolete tomorrow. Workers need to keep learning new skills, especially those that AI struggles with: creativity, emotional intelligence, and complex problem-solving.
Example: A factory worker learns programming basics to maintain and troubleshoot AI-driven machines instead of being replaced by them.
2. Investigate Your Passive Income Options
If you are in a "season of plenty", to be less reliant on a single Wage Slave job to support your family, look into other income streams that don't require you to trade time for wages.
Example: Set up a bond ladder, invest in a high-yield CD or mutual funds, participate in employer matching 401K, etc.
Further Reading: 25 Passive Income Ideas For You To Make More Money.
3. Supplemental Income From Passion Projects or Part-Time Work
If your industry is already impacted, look into gig work, remote part-time work, or start your passion project before AI makes your job a "redundant cost". You can fit such work around your current Corporate job and bolster your savings for that deluge!
Example: Rideshare jobs, food or package delivery jobs, virtual assisting, utilize your home as an AirBnb rental, start a blog and/or a YouTube channel, dog walking, tutoring, etc.
4. Take The Entrepreneurship Leap
If you are still working full-time, have a substantial savings, benefitted from a generous inheritance, or already have multiple income streams, now is the time to open that small business you always dreamed about! Example: It's easier to lay the groundwork for a restaurant, while you have income, than when you are scrambling for employment to stay afloat. Then, if you get axed early, you have the time to physically launch your idea - without worrying about start up expenses eating into your family's safety net.
5. Learn a Trade
This is not viable for everyone, as many people are not handy like Tim "The Tool" Man Taylor. However, for those who can fix, build, provide personal services, or install things, getting in a trade is the best AI job protection you can do right now! Example: Car mechanics, electricians, plumbers, repairmen, HVAC installers - are just a few safe professions to transition to - until programmers figure out how to get robots to cook, cut hair, massage you, or "fix sh*t" as well as humans presently do.
Conclusion - Being a Sitting Duck Is Not A Strategy
This is a scary time where the entire global workforce is under an "Industrial Revolution" style upheaval - only on a level we can't fathom yet.
We can't wait on government to rescue us, especially when world leaders are investing taxpayer resources heavily to advance AI technology to the max in a competitive economic arms race.
By enrolling into free or low-cost community AI retraining programs, diversifying your income streams to wean yourself off Corporate America's tit, launching a small business, or pivoting altogether to an "AI free" industry - one can protect their livelihoods by adopting proactive and adaptive strategies to unfavorable trends against Wage Slaves.
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