{"id":432214,"date":"2026-02-18T11:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432214\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:51:25","slug":"unemployment-is-rising-how-to-become-one-of-the-35-per-cent-of-irreplaceables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432214\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment is rising \u2013 how to become one of the 35 per cent of \u2018irreplaceables\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m lucky enough to spend a lot of my working life<\/a> with younger people. Lucky, because they keep me young. At the age when my parents<\/a> were contemplating retirement<\/a> \u2013 I\u2019m 58 this year \u2013 I\u2019m enjoying a new lease of life because of them.<\/p>\n

But something has changed in the past months. The sparkle has gone from their eyes. They\u2019re frightened for their careers because they\u2019re told generative AI is coming for their jobs. And many have been sharing with me the same doom-mongering essay entitled \u201cSomething Big Is Happening\u201d, written by Matt Shumer. More than 70 million people have viewed with horror the picture Matt has painted about a thriving corporate future devoid of human interaction, where the white-collar worker is an extinct species.<\/p>\n

Just so you know, Matt is an investor in AI, and his essay was partly written by technology. The essay was published on the same day that Microsoft\u2019s AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, issued another stark warning: \u201cWhite-collar work, where you\u2019re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person \u2013 most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fascinating essay \u2013 and a scary prediction. It certainly chimes with job figures out today, which show the UK\u2019s unemployment rate hitting a near five-year high in the last three months of 2025, climbing to 5.2 per cent. The existential crisis this is causing is everywhere \u2013 from essays on LinkedIn to new films like Subservience or the South Korean film No Other Choice \u2013 a dark social thriller about a middle-aged man whose life collapses after redundancy and whose job hunt turns murderous as he kills any competition going for the same position in a shrinking, AI-driven job market. <\/p>\n

But I just don\u2019t buy this narrative being peddled of a hopeless future. Or not all of it, anyway.<\/p>\n

Yes, artificial intelligence is transforming the world of work in ways we struggle to comprehend and predict. We\u2019re all replaceable and AI, so we\u2019re told, is just speeding up the inevitable. The latest figures about the creative industries tell their own story. Last year, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the number of employees declined by more than 14 per cent. When it comes to employees aged under 25 \u2013 the sector\u2019s future \u2013 that figure is closer to 20 per cent. A fifth of the future workforce has simply disappeared. <\/p>\n

The latest batch of unemployment figures is also worrying, and shows that unemployment was particularly high among young workers. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, the rate rose to 16.1 per cent at the end of 2025 \u2013 the highest it\u2019s been in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

But what I want to tell this cohort is, don\u2019t give up. You can make yourself irreplaceable in this new world. Titles mean nothing any more, so don\u2019t chase them. Instead, focus on the skills that AI simply can\u2019t compete with \u2013 become what is being dubbed the \u201c35 per cent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Megan<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Megan Fox plays an artificially intelligent gynoid who gains sentience and becomes hostile in \u2018Subservience\u2019 (Netflix)<\/p>\n

In the past 12 months, something truly interesting has been happening in the corporate work I do. I\u2019m working at a senior level and my success is also down to how companies and individuals are using AI tools. Or not. There is a new mood in town where business leaders are waking up to the fact that the technology is flawed. <\/p>\n

Emotional depth, critical thinking, complex and nuanced storytelling, serendipitous moments of creativity, personal connection, daring leadership are all missing ingredients… and this is where the irreplaceables are and will be \u2013 the 35 per cent or so of those white-collar professionals who will successfully navigate the AI-mageddon. <\/p>\n

My advice? Double down on the human skills you have because they\u2019re more valuable than ever. Even for those entry-level \u201creplaceables\u201d who are being unfairly written off by Shuman and Suleyman. AI is a tool. But it needs you to make it work properly. You have the muscles, so use them.<\/p>\n

Last week, I was asked to pitch for a piece of skills training work, which could be one of my biggest gigs. More than 100 marketers, insights and data professionals who work for a large entertainment company. The brief included this: \u201cPlease do not include any AI-related tools or modules. We use AI all the time, but we\u2019re not telling good enough stories to each other. Our communications skills have suffered because of the tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not an unusual request. It now happens a couple of times a month.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m ghostwriting thought leadership for a handful of high-profile business leaders, whom you will undoubtedly know. All have, in the past, used AI to create their material without much success \u2013 because, they tell me, it doesn\u2019t feel like \u201cthem\u201d.<\/p>\n

The larger organisations I work with are offering younger recruits storytelling training and mentorship programmes because they know how essential a skill it is. The problem is that there are too many young, brilliant minds emerging from higher education who struggle with deep thinking because they rely on technology to give them the answers. <\/p>\n

They can\u2019t think in headlines. They don\u2019t have an empathetic understanding of audiences or customers. They often don\u2019t ask the right questions, and look frightened when their immaculately researched work is met by a critical (or even sceptical) interrogation from their bosses. When I started my business, it was table tennis and bagels. Now it\u2019s storytelling and critical thinking that are the perks everyone wants.<\/p>\n

\"Too<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Too many young people rely on technology to give them answers to problems (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

AI tools are brilliant, make no mistake. I use Perplexity for research, Claude to polish my writing. ChatGPT is essential for quick answers (I always check the source), Google Gemini makes me more efficient with emails, Canvas is brilliant for PowerPoint presentations, and I make tutorial videos with Synthesia. These are all super-fast, largely devoid of error, simple to use, but lacking the \u201csecret sauce\u201d of creativity that we bring as human beings. <\/p>\n

Machines cannot make your work uniquely you. People have a signature style, a hinterland, an individual culture and perspective that brings authenticity to work. If everyone is writing the same stuff \u2013 and AI-generated content is easy to spot \u2013 the ones who use their own brains and provide their own original (and, yes, sometimes messy) thoughts will be more valued.<\/p>\n

Machines cannot empathise in the heat of the moment. The most important part of a pitch or presentation is not the slick slides put together by the tech. It\u2019s when you\u2019re in the room, watching people\u2019s reactions, sensing their frustration, knowing when you\u2019ve hit a bullseye or missed an open goal. That\u2019s the moment that matters, the part that will seal a deal. <\/p>\n

\"Screening<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Screening process: GenAI is getting more powerful every day, but it is still just guessing how to be human (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

Machines cannot match your human skills. You have the anecdotes, the colour, the personal experience, the reactive qualities that can make things more meaningful in an instant. GenAI is getting better every day, but it is sycophantic in its interactions and simply predicts how we might act \u2013 guessing at how to be human.<\/p>\n

In this environment, success is down to being able to communicate effectively by watching and listening, then quickly adapting to the changing needs of current and potential clients, customers and colleagues.<\/p>\n

In a world of AI slop, there is a desperate need for originality. For something daring; for something that looks a bit different from everything else. If you can do that kind of messy critical thinking and approach tasks that leverage AI, rather than outsource everything to it, you can grow in this world, as can your business. <\/p>\n

While AI is promising to revolutionise business, many organisations are discovering that it fails to deliver value, is too costly or complex to implement alone. Employ people to work with AI; don\u2019t sack them because of it. AI is, in fact, failing at scale and driving a new demand for human expertise to fix it. <\/p>\n

Humans are there to provide trust, accuracy and authenticity.<\/p>\n

That last sentence was provided by AI. I couldn\u2019t have put it better myself.<\/p>\n

Grant Feller writes on Substack about the business of storytelling at https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/grantfeller<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m lucky enough to spend a lot of my working life with younger people. Lucky, because they keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-432214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}