Tweet from @bentossell (I love his daily AI newsletter)
The list got me thinking… instead of framing as “AI replaces X job”, I think the actual outcome is more like “AI recreates X job”, in much the same way that ATMs recreated the bank teller’s job, and personal computers recreated the typist’s job, and Photoshop recreated the graphic designer’s job…
Implicit in this, is that change is inevitable and outcomes will favor those who best adapt.
Just some thinking aloud…
Content creator –> after AI –> Human does more editing, curating, and aggregating (eg, across different media types)
Journalist –> AI –> Human does more primary research (developing sources, interviewing), editing
Teacher –> AI –> Human does more coaching (emotional support), planning (what to learn when), problem solving (when students are stuck)
Customer service rep –> AI –> Human does more complex issue resolution, relationship building, sales development
Social media manager –> AI –> Human does more editing and curation, community and relationship building
Translator –> AI –> Human does more fact checking, editing, research
Musician –> AI –> Human does more mixing, curating, multimedia, live performance, inventing new musical styles
Not insignificant, too, that several of the jobs on the list — such as web developer or social media manager — didn’t exist in their current form as recently as a few decades ago, and were also enabled (or transformed) by similar mega waves of technological change (eg, personal computers, smartphones, the internet).
I do think AI has surprised in the following important way: Even as recently as a year ago, most people would have assumed that the creative fields (broadly, activities like making art, writing fiction, composing music) were less at risk than the more repetitive, linear, analytical fields. Today generative art and LLMs have definitively proven otherwise.
Change filled times ahead!
