Articles

Job Losses in the U.S. due to AI

Antonio Szabo
Silver Fox Advisor
February 2025

We are living in a world very much focused on AI. As we all know there are many reasons for this. This paper is focused on the potential impact of AI on labor markets. 
Most people believe that AI is a threat in addition to being a revolutionary technological achievement. Let’s examine some facts and educated projections on the potential impact of AI on the US labor markets.

A good starting point is, which type of jobs are more vulnerable to AI.

Obviously, the category of jobs that are more vulnerable to AI are routine and repetitive jobs.  AI will significantly impact routine and repetitive jobs by automating tasks that require minimal creativity or critical thinking. Roles such as data entry clerks, telemarketers, and assembly line workers are particularly vulnerable, as AI systems can efficiently handle these tasks, reducing the demand for human labor in these areas. For example, financial services and customer support are seeing automation in activities like fraud detection, basic inquiries, and report generation. Also, some white-collar jobs will not be immune. Thus, the jobs of accountants, administrative and legal assistants, will be disrupted. Ironically, basic programming roles will also be affected.
Some jobs are actually complemented by AI.

The jobs less likely to be affected by AI are the ones that have content that requires emotions.

Doctors, nurses, and psychiatrists rely on emotion and Emotional Intelligence (EI), therefore are less likely to be impacted in a major way. It is worth noting, that in the Healthcare Sector jobs such as Pathologists and Radiologists may see reduced demand for their services since AI enhances diagnostics.

The work of Emergency Responders (Paramedics, Firefighters, and Police Officers) requires both quick judgment and empathy negating the AI threat.

Having a great affinity for music (particularly classical music), I pondered about the potential impact of AI on music. Conductors, soloists, and musicians in general are safe. So, they are where AI could have an impact in composition. The composition of classical music is a very complex mixture of knowledge about music history, harmony, and emotional depth. While efforts with AI in music are ongoing and have been at least for a couple of years any success stories are in popular music. The experiments devoted to Symphonies and Concertos have produced results that could be characterized as amateurish. One hesitates to call it infantile mainly because it is Mozart.

According to recent projections by researchers Forrester, within the next one to three years, AI could potentially lead to the loss of around 2.4 million jobs in the US.