California-based Jacqueline Bowman had been dead set on becoming a writer since she was a child. At 14 she got her first internship at her local newspaper, and later she studied journalism at university. Though she hadn\u2019t been able to make a full-time living from her favourite pastime \u2013 fiction writing \u2013 post-university, she consistently got writing work (mostly content marketing, some journalism) and went freelance full-time when she was 26. Sure, content marketing wasn\u2019t exactly the dream, but she was writing every day, and it was paying the bills \u2013 she was happy enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut something really switched in 2024,\u201d Bowman, now 30, says. Layoffs and publication closures meant that much of her work \u201ckind of dried up. I started to get clients coming to me and talking about AI,\u201d she says \u2013 some even brazen enough to tell her how \u201cgreat\u201d it was \u201cthat we don\u2019t need writers any more\u201d. She was offered work as an editor \u2013 checking and altering work produced by artificial intelligence. The idea was that polishing up already-written content would take less time than writing it from scratch, so Bowman\u2019s fee was reduced to about half of what it had been when she was writing for the same content marketing agency \u2013 but, in reality, it ended up taking double the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI now had to meticulously fact-check every single thing in the articles. And at least 60% of it would be completely made up,\u201d she says. \u201cI would just end up rewriting most of the article. So something that would take me two hours when I was writing it by myself now took me four hours, making half the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
To add insult to injury, Bowman\u2019s few remaining clients have sometimes accused her of using AI to create her work. \u201cI never use AI to write anything,\u201d she says, but she has noticed that AI-produced copy can sometimes seem eerily similar to her own writing \u2013 which she suspects is due to large language models being trained on some of her previous work. She can\u2019t afford to take any of the Silicon Valley giants to court \u2013 though she is grateful for the authors, like George Saunders and Ta-Nehisi Coates<\/a>, who have done so.<\/p>\n By January 2025, Bowman was no longer able to afford her own health insurance, which hammered home what she had already begun to suspect: \u201cWriting is not going to work out for me any more.\u201d She decided to bring her wedding forward (she and her partner are still going ahead with their planned celebration in March, but last year obtained a marriage certificate from their local courthouse) so she would be eligible to join her husband\u2019s health insurance plan. But she knew a more drastic change would be needed before long.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a subsection of people who say: \u2018Hey, AI took my job. I\u2019m not going to an AI therapist\u2019<\/p>\n She remembered a psychology elective she had enjoyed in college, and wondered if she might be able to make a more secure living by becoming a therapist. \u201cIt\u2019s not AI-proof\u201d \u2013 Bowman admits that some people will be happy to use AI-powered therapy services<\/a>, which already exist. \u201cBut there\u2019s another subsection of people who are going to say: \u2018Hey, AI took my job, AI ruined my life. I\u2019m not going to go to an AI therapist,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cSo in that way, I do think that there\u2019s still going to be an audience who wants a human therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowman decided to take action and retrain, \u201cwhile I still do have a little bit of work\u201d, and is now back at university studying to become a marriage and family therapist. She counts herself \u201cincredibly lucky\u201d because she is able to rely on her husband, and on any writing work she can still get, to make ends meet \u2013 but has still had to take out loans. She\u2019s enjoying the course, and is \u201cglad she has the opportunity to do it\u201d, but it is not something she would have considered if her writing work hadn\u2019t become untenable.<\/p>\n Janet Feenstra, in her previous job as an editor in Stockholm. Photograph: Courtesy of Janet Feenstra<\/p>\n Janet Feenstra, an academic editor turned baker based in Malm\u00f6, Sweden, also has mixed feelings about her career change, a choice she similarly made because of fears that AI would make her old job void. \u201cIt\u2019s complicated because, in a way, I maybe should be grateful to AI for prompting this change,\u201d she says. Feenstra now works at \u201ca really cute bakery\u201d, where she and her colleagues \u201croll out the dough by hand and it feels amazing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe listen to music and we dance and sing whenever we want,\u201d she adds. \u201cI have a lot more fun now, but I don\u2019t want to be grateful to AI for this \u2013 I\u2019m still a little bit bitter.\u201d It felt like a forced career change, rather than one she was choosing on her own terms, she explains \u2013 not to mention the fact that she now gets paid less, travels farther to work and does a much more tiring job.<\/p>\n Since 2013, the 52-year-old, who is originally from the US, had been working as a freelance editor alongside a part-time job at Malm\u00f6 University doing what is called \u201clanguage editing\u201d: tidying up texts written by researchers whose first language isn\u2019t English.<\/p>\n \u201cThe standard of English here in Sweden is very, very high, so this was very specialised academic editing,\u201d she says. \u201cThe international journals are very picky, so it required a certain expertise that we could offer.\u201d However, in recent years, she began to hear people within the university talking about wanting to use AI. \u201cIt was scary. I felt like the writing was on the wall a bit,\u201d Feenstra says. She began to realise that if a manuscript \u201cis already quite good\u201d, then an AI system prompted to meet academic journal requirements might be able to do the work she had been doing.<\/p>\n \u2018Rolling out the dough by hand feels amazing\u2019 \u2026 Janet Feenstra in her new job as a baker. Photograph: Courtesy of Janet Feenstra<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to wait until it was too late,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt scared \u2026 I\u2019m divorced, I have two children to look after and I need financial security.\u201d So she decided to retrain in something she \u201cwas fairly sure that AI would not replace anytime soon\u201d, and enrolled in culinary school.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t an easy transition. \u201cI had to move out because I wasn\u2019t able to afford my rent any more,\u201d she says, which meant that her sons, who had previously lived between their parents\u2019 two homes, had to live full-time with their father. While Feenstra embarked on her year-long training, she moved in with her partner, whose flat was too small to house her sons as well. Now, having worked in the bakery for five months, she has recently signed a contract on a new flat, which will have room for her sons. \u201cI\u2019ve had to work really hard: I\u2019ve had to retrain, I\u2019ve had to accept lower pay and conditions that are physically challenging,\u201d Feenstra says. But securing the flat \u201cis really exciting because it\u2019s a goal realised\u201d.<\/p>\n Feenstra says it has been \u201can interesting journey\u201d to go from a job typically associated with middle-class people to one seen as working-class. \u201cWhite-collar work isn\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be, I\u2019ve realised,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it requires an adjustment. We\u2019re so defined by our jobs and our class.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps those definitions of what counts as a \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cmiddle class\u201d job will begin to change: a 2023 report on the impact of AI on jobs and training<\/a> in the UK by the Department for Education concluded that: \u201cProfessional occupations are more exposed to AI, particularly those associated with more clerical work and across finance, law and business management roles.\u201d And, rightly or wrongly, Feenstra is not alone in deciding that learning a trade is a relatively safe bet.<\/p>\n Angela Joyce, the CEO of Capital City College, a further education provider in London, says: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a steady growth in students of all ages coming to us to do trades-based qualifications,\u201d in subjects such as engineering, culinary arts and childcare. There is \u201cdefinitely a shift\u201d away from traditional academic routes, she says, which she attributes to the high numbers of unemployed young people \u2013 and \u201ca good proportion of those are graduates\u201d, she notes. That shift towards seeking vocational training is \u201cin part linked to AI\u201d, Joyce thinks, because people are looking for \u201cjobs that AI can\u2019t replace\u201d.<\/p>\n Composite: Rui Pu\/The Guardian; Getty Images<\/p>\n That was certainly the case for Richard, a Northampton-based chartered occupational health and safety professional. After working his way up the career ladder for 15 years, the 39-year-old decided to jump ship and retrain as an electrical engineer.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth and safety isn\u2019t going to disappear any time soon because organisations can\u2019t name AI as a responsible person or a duty holder for businesses legally,\u201d he says. But a few years ago, he started to hear \u201cmumblings of AI\u201d within the industry, and saw organisations start to experiment with automating certain systems and procedures. He watched as AI began to be used for writing policies and safe systems of work, and realised that if a large portion of practitioners\u2019 workload could be done by AI, then there might only be a need for \u201chighly specialised managers. The rest of it\u2019s probably going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he decided to \u201cpre-empt that\u201d and pursue a different path, his main worry about AI taking over health and safety roles wasn\u2019t actually that people like him would lose jobs \u2013 he finds aspects of AI \u201cexciting\u201d and accepts that it will inevitably shake up the way we work. His primary concern was that the implementation of AI might be \u201cmore of a cost-cutting exercise than it is about safety\u201d. Richard cares deeply about the health and safety industry, which he entered after his friend was killed in a gas explosion at work.<\/p>\n Richard, who retrained as an electrical engineer after 15 years in occupational health and safety. Photograph: Handout<\/p>\n He has taken \u201ca huge cut\u201d financially since he has been working as an electrical engineer over the past year, but his new job does at least still have keeping people safe at its core. And there is the potential to make the kind of money he earned in his old job once he has more experience under his belt, he says, but \u201cI\u2019m a good five, 10 years off\u201d. And that\u2019s if automation hasn\u2019t come for electrical work by then \u2013 Richard mentions BMW\u2019s testing of a humanoid robot<\/a> as an example of how AI could affect trade jobs. Currently, though, the trades, in the UK at least, are \u201cthe most resilient to the levels of automation that AI is bringing in\u201d, Richard believes. \u201cCompanies are capitalising on AI to remove one of their biggest costs, which is human overheads,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to pick something which has resilience. So, statistically, that is not your roles that are bureaucratic by nature, heavy in data and are just a bunch of processes which you repeat end on end. It needs to be something with high dexterity and some high problem-solving skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Carl Benedikt Frey, an associate professor of AI and work at the Oxford Internet Institute, agrees that manual work \u201cis going to be harder to automate\u201d, but predicts that AI will have an impact \u201cacross a very wide range of industries\u201d \u2013 trades included. \u201cIf the dishwasher breaks down in my home, I can take a picture and I can quiz the large language model of my choice, and I\u2019m more likely to be able to fix it myself these days without calling an engineer,\u201d he says. That\u2019s not to say tradespeople are \u201cdoomed\u201d \u2013 he cautions against making too many decisions based on \u201csome hypothetical future scenario \u2026 We have to go by what\u2019s actually happening in the labour market.\u201d Which, now, is not a lot. \u201cWe\u2019re beginning to see some studies suggesting more of an impact on entry-level work,\u201d Frey says, but a reduction in entry-level job opportunities could also be attributed to higher interest rates, or post-pandemic recovery, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs AI gets better, and its capabilities improve, I think it\u2019s likely that we will see it on a bigger slice of the labour market. But we\u2019re not seeing it yet.\u201d In fact, Frey has now reassessed his earlier claim that 47% of roles were at risk of being replaced by computerisation, made in The Future of Employment<\/a>, the 2013 paper he co-authored with Prof Michael Osborne. \u201cIn that study, a lot of the jobs that we deem are highly exposed to automation are jobs in transportation and logistics because of autonomous vehicles,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s fair to say that it\u2019s taken much longer for that technology to materialise.\u201d As self-driving cars<\/a> do begin to hit our streets, \u201cwe will see a lot of jobs being replaced in trucking and even in taxi services\u201d, Frey believes. But his message seems to be don\u2019t panic \u2013 at least not yet. \u201cIt might be a good idea if you are, say, in the early days of your professional career, to take the time that you still have to invest in training and figuring out other more viable career paths,\u201d particularly if you work as a translator \u2013 one profession where \u201cwe\u2019re already seeing that AI is having an impact, although we\u2019re not seeing mass displacement by any means\u201d. But if you are reaching the end of your working life, \u201cyou can probably ride the wave for a few more years\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n Roles the team don\u2019t want to do \u2013 like email outreach and cold calling \u2013 we can get AI agents to do that<\/p>\n The most significant AI-caused declines in employment and wages will be in jobs like software engineering and management consultancy, according to a King\u2019s College London study<\/a> published in October 2025. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that there aren\u2019t going to be new jobs that will be created,\u201d Dr Bouke Klein Teeselink, who authored that study, notes. Historically, whenever there have been technological advances people have worried about mass unemployment, but it hasn\u2019t happened, he says. \u201cSo there\u2019s a part of me that is a little bit sceptical that all the jobs will disappear, but at the same time there is a reason to think that this technology might be different, in the sense that humans always maintained some type of absolute advantage over technology in certain domains. And that may no longer be true.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, while we can\u2019t yet know the full impact AI will have on workers, \u201cbecoming really good at working with AI is probably going to be a skill that will pay off\u201d, Klein advises. Which is what the Birmingham-based entrepreneurs Fayyaz Garda and Arun Singh Aujla, both 25, are attempting to do. Garda, who works in procurement, and Singh Aujla, who runs a social media marketing business, are in the process of setting up an AI consulting business, educating themselves about AI via YouTube. \u201cIt\u2019s a growing market, and there\u2019s definitely a space for it. So I\u2019m hoping to try and get in there early,\u201d Garda says. The plan is to employ a number of engineers to create AI systems that will answer phone calls, respond to mail and fulfil other tasks businesses need doing, he explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThe AI consulting business is one way I\u2019m upskilling to move with the times,\u201d Singh Aujla adds. \u201cAI won\u2019t replace me, but it may take a large market share out of my business. So it\u2019s always good to make an extra stream of revenue.\u201d There are certain roles Singh Aujla would never replace with AI, though: \u201cI would not replace my management team. You need that human interaction with your team,\u201d he says. \u201cBut roles the team don\u2019t want to do, like email outreach and cold calling, we can get AI agents to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n For some, it may well prove true that AI improves their work life by removing tasks they find tedious or difficult, giving them more time to focus on the more fulfilling aspects of their job. For others, though, it is the reason they have given up on their dream career. Paola Adeitan, 31, had her heart set on being a solicitor, and obtained an undergraduate degree and a master\u2019s in law. She had planned to do the legal practice course, the final stage of training needed to qualify as a solicitor, \u201cbut I decided not to pursue that path because I felt like, with the change in technology, the AI, that might not be a viable path for me to carry on with,\u201d she says. Friends of hers had struggled to get entry-level law roles, which she believed to be partly due to the increased use of AI at law firms.<\/p>\n Adeitan still volunteers as a legal adviser, but her day job is in the health sector \u2013 although even that role could be affected by AI, she thinks, so she is remaining open to the idea that she might end up retraining again. \u201cI do feel a sense of disappointment,\u201d she says, \u201cbut the nature of work is changing. It\u2019s very difficult now to decide what you want to do; you have to think carefully. It\u2019s not about what you want any more; it\u2019s about what is going to be there, what\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re lucky, what ends up working best could be something you really enjoy \u2013 as is the case for Faz, 23, who took a break from his geography degree at the University of Manchester in 2023 because of a family matter. Afterwards, it didn\u2019t make sense to him to return to his degree. \u201cI had to think about what was future-proof, I had to think about what was AI-proof. And it seemed like a lot of entry-level roles in the corporate sector were being taken over by AI. And because AI is so unpredictable, you never know if those more specialised roles will also become obsolete,\u201d he says. So he has instead been training for a Level 2 qualification in electrical installation since September 2025. \u201cI thoroughly enjoy it,\u201d he says. Though he might go back to university at some point \u2013 his \u201cideal setup\u201d would be a combination of working part-time for a council or a charity, while doing electrical work on the side \u2013 \u201cright now, a tradie job is 100%, God willing, the correct choice. I\u2019m fairly certain it will be future-proofed against AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Composite: Rui Pu\/The Guardian; Getty Images<\/p>\n Bethan, 24, from Bristol, also enjoys her AI-proof job, working in a local cafe. But it comes at a cost: she has hypermobility spectrum disorder, which gives her severe joint pain and makes it hard for her to move around. \u201cI can\u2019t work long hours now because I\u2019ve pushed my body past the point,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Bethan\u2019s old job, at a university IT helpdesk, \u201cwas the first job that I didn\u2019t come home in pain from\u201d, she says. But only a couple of months after she was hired, she and her colleagues were told the helpdesk was being closed down and replaced with an AI kiosk. \u201cIt was awful,\u201d she says. The helpdesk staff tried to defend their roles, arguing that for students who didn\u2019t speak English as a first language, or older students who weren\u2019t computer-literate, having humans behind the desk may still be necessary. \u201cIt felt like we were getting completely ignored. They went ahead with it because they said they had to get a certain number of cuts to the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n Hospitality was the only other sector in which she had experience, so she ended up at her cafe job. \u201cFeeling like I had to go back to hospitality, which was so bad for my body, was a horrible feeling,\u201d she says. She is now on the lookout for an office job, but has struggled to find anything entry-level. \u201cThose are the jobs that are vanishing because they\u2019re the easiest to replace,\u201d she says \u2013 but it also means it is impossible to get the experience needed for higher-up roles. Bethan worries that even if she does get an office job, she could lose it to AI again. \u201cIs it worth all the effort of applying, getting my CV up to date, and potentially doing a couple of rounds of interviews just to find out at the end we\u2019re going to be replaced again?\u201d<\/p>\n With more physically demanding jobs making up the bulk of what is now considered \u201cAI-proof\u201d, those who have made the switch from white-collar roles are having to adapt to the toll it takes on their bodies. The electricians Richard works with are typically in their late teens and early 20s. \u201cTheir recovery rates are a hell of a lot quicker than mine. So if I pick up an injury, for example, it takes me far longer to recuperate. Also, they can work far longer hours than I can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n And though Feenstra enjoys the physicality of working in a bakery, she has been thinking about how sustainable this kind of job will be as she gets older. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve been taking note of how the owners run the business,\u201d she says, in case there is a possibility of running her own bakery one day. She is proud of how she is continuing to adapt to the changing world around her: \u201cI want my sons to feel a little bit inspired by that,\u201d she says. Yet she doesn\u2019t feel she can offer them career advice. \u201cHow am I supposed to advise them when I don\u2019t even really know if what I\u2019m doing is the right path?\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really unsettling when you can\u2019t advise them. If they have a passion for something and they want to do something, immediately you think, OK, is this even going to exist in the next 10, 20 years? That just kind of sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballerinas will still exist, says Klein. \u201cNo one is going to go to the ballet to see a robot do really good ballet,\u201d the academic says. \u201cSame for theatre, same for football, same for many other things where it matters that there\u2019s a human.\u201d He doesn\u2019t think people will be wanting to confess to robo-priests any time soon either, or leave children in the care of AI. \u201cThere are just categories where we prefer to interact with humans, right?\u201d For that reason, social skills will remain important, Klein and Frey agree. And though it might seem as if AI could make expert knowledge useless, Klein disagrees. \u201cI have students who use AI naively, and therefore they have no idea whether the reports they produce are good or bad,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to have that expertise to be able to guide the AI to get it to do what you need it to do. So in that sense, I think the value of expertise might actually go up.\u201d<\/p>\n How such expertise will be developed, if entry-level jobs are being ditched in favour of AI systems, is a question that remains as yet unanswered, as is who will actually be able to buy a ticket to the ballet should large swathes of the population be put out of work. But Frey doesn\u2019t think it is worth spending too much time worrying about that potential future \u2013 yet. \u201cIt could well arrive, but it matters a great deal if that happens in five years or 20.\u201d While he acknowledges \u201cthere are reasons to be concerned\u201d, Frey doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s time to \u201cpaint a scenario where everybody\u2019s going to be out of work five years from now, and we need to rethink everything\u201d.<\/p>\n Share your experience<\/p>\n Share your experience<\/p>\n If you’ve altered your career plans because of AI, tell us about it in the form below.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For alternative ways to get in touch securely please see our tips guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have you retrained or moved careers due to your previous career path being at risk of an artificial intelligence takeover? <\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n Did you have a dream profession that you have decided not to pursue because of fears it will be thwarted by AI? Optional<\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n If you are happy to, please upload a photo of yourself here Optional<\/p>\n Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB.<\/p>\n Choose file<\/p>\n Can we publish your response? <\/p>\n You can add more information here Optional<\/p>\n If you include other people’s names please ask them first.<\/p>\n Would you be interested in speaking to our audio and\/or video teams? <\/p>\n By submitting your response, you are agreeing to share your details with us for this feature.<\/p>\n Submit<\/p>\n Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California-based Jacqueline Bowman had been dead set on becoming a writer since she was a child. At 14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-472289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}