How AI's Task-Allocation Power Can Impact Your Job Stability

In 2023, Goldman Sachs expressed concern about the potential of generative AI to jeopardize 300 million jobs globally. By 2025, experts predict that AI could eradicate 50% of all entry-level, white-collar positions, possibly increasing unemployment rates to 10%-20% in the ensuing years. High-performance language models like Claude or ChatGPT are now capable of creating marketing content, constructing poetry and short narratives, preparing legal summaries, and fixing programming errors in seconds. With abilities to trawl the internet, compile resources, produce research summaries, and even generate sophisticated PowerPoint presentations, these AI models are prompting many workers to question the security of their jobs. Recent studies suggest that the impact of AI on your job may depend less on your job title and more on the range of tasks you undertake daily. What defines the risk of your job being overtaken by AI is not your position, but rather the tractability of your tasks to automation. Below, we discuss how you can assess your occupational risk in the era of advancing AI. Jobs composed primarily of tasks that AI can totally take over are understandably the most vulnerable. Conversely, jobs that consist of at least some tasks that can only be performed by humans are safer as employees transition to the creative, client-oriented, and uniquely human tasks that AI is incapable of performing. Consider conducting a self-audit: Make a list of your top 10 weekly tasks and note any that a GPT-4-level model could currently perform. If AI could manage more than 50% of these tasks, it could indicate a displacement risk; less than 30% could suggest that AI might boost your productivity rather than threaten your job. Historically, technological disruption tends to permeate labor markets over several years. After all, despite the advent of computers and the internet, the US labor market transitioned more slowly from 1990-2017 than in any preceding period. Long-term career planning should take into account the gradual but cumulative impact of AI adoption on jobs. We are already observing some potent indicators: drastic reductions in retail positions, stagnated growth in low-paying services, a boom in STEM hiring, and the contraction of mid-wage jobs suggest a mounting pace. Economists propose that the true potential of AI lies in "task lifting"-the possibility that software can handle the mundane aspects of complex jobs, enabling mid-skill workers to undertake higher-value tasks previously performed by elite professionals. However, this beneficial AI integration isn't a given. Studies propose three possible scenarios: an AI-free world, an unrestricted AI world with minimal job loss, or a "some-AI" world where employment could fall by nearly 25% if companies employ the technology solely to cut labor costs. The repercussions for policy are clear: incentives such as skills-training subsidies and AI co-design grants could encourage firms to pursue AI applications that expand, not reduce, the middle class of the labor market. AI doesn't have to be an all-consuming job destroyer; it can function as a task-redistribution tool. Your personal vulnerability depends on how many of your daily tasks are "AI-ready" and whether companies use the technology as a replacement or a resource. By auditing your work, diversifying your tasks, and aligning with businesses that invest in human-AI collaboration, you can harness the power of AI to benefit your career rather than letting it engulf you.