Afraid AI Might Take Your Job? Try Not to Panic
AI is an imperfect technology that’s still trying to prove its profitability and market value – especially when used as a large language model. Even still, college students are increasingly using AI to write their essays for them. Plus, the new technology is causing panic among white-collar, knowledge workers who are wondering, “Will AI take my job?”
While artificial intelligence could potentially impose large changes on the labor market, most people don’t need to panic just yet. Instead, take a deep breath and use the time you have now to get prepared.
‘Will AI Take My Job?’ Who is Panicking – And Why
There are some fields that have already been impacted by AI, though these results aren’t necessarily a direct impact of the technology’s capabilities. For example, writers and editors have lost their positions in large numbers over the past couple of years. One of the biggest announcements of 2025 came in May, when Business Insider laid off 21% of its staff.
However, these layoffs have more to do with opaque changes to Google’s algorithm and the introduction of AI Overviews. Google’s AI Overviews are not producing better results than human writers, but because they’re imposed at the top of every Google search, many users trust them as gospel, and do not click through to the articles they were previously reading.
When users don’t click through, this impacts a website’s traffic, which in turn reduces the publication’s advertising revenue. When revenue goes down, jobs are cut – not because the writers and editors weren’t doing a better job than the “robots,” but because Google has changed the way results are presented.
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Why Most People Don’t Need to Panic – Yet
To find out just how quickly AI might take over the labor market on the whole, I sat down with Isabella Loaiza-Saa of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Her research in this space reveals that while AI may change the labor market, we likely won’t see its full impacts for at least several years. Past technological changes have taken several decades to alter the labor market, but this particular technology may move faster.
It’s also important to note that for all the hype around AI, it’s still brand new. It has yet to cement its established uses among the labor force.
“There is a gap between the technology’s potential and its deployment and adoption in the real world,” explains Loaiza-Saa. “We are just beginning to see how AI is being adopted by workers and businesses, and that will require experimentation. Not all technology gets deployed as intended, and once deployed, it takes time to be fully adopted.”
While the thousands of people who have lost their jobs – and in some cases, careers – are not to be dismissed, Loaiza-Saa also cautions against blaming artificial intelligence for tighter labor markets generally. These two things may correlate in terms of timing, but that does not mean that in every case AI is causative.
“We shouldn’t confuse AI’s effects with broader economic conditions,” Loaiza-Saa notes. “Slow economic conditions often lead to tight labor markets, but we can’t attribute this exclusively to AI.”
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OK, But I’m Panicking Anyway
It’s OK to still be panicked. Several years isn’t a very long runway to overhaul your skillset. But you can funnel that panic into strategic action. The key when any new technology is introduced is to keep yourself adaptable.
“Learning to use AI itself is key,” Loaiza-Saa said. “You don’t have to learn how to code […] however, you need to learn to work with AI. Also, exercising critical thinking and learning to work with others – both humans and agents – is always good.”
What, exactly, to upskill in is a little more vague – as was the case when past technologies burst onto the scene.
“In the medium- to long-term, AI will create new types of work and jobs,” Loaiza-Saa said. “The telephone gave us call centers, the internet and social media gave us community managers, and AI has initially given us AI engineers.
“It’s easier to think about automation because it affects jobs and tasks that exist today and are familiar to us. It’s more difficult to imagine the types of jobs that technologies create, especially when they don’t exist yet.”
Upskilling in the face of AI
That said, a recent paper co-authored by Loaiza-Saa explored fields that are more likely to be AI-resistant, or integrate well with the changes AI will bring to the labor market. These are jobs that rely heavily on a framework called EPOCH. EPOCH positions have seen growth between the years of 2016 and 2024, and many of them are white-collar.
EPOCH stands for jobs that require:
- Empathy and emotional intelligence
- Presence, networking and connectedness
- Opinion, judgment and ethics
- Creativity and imagination
- Hope, vision and leadership
“We think that occupations with high EPOCH capabilities are more resilient to AI,” Loaiza-Saa said. “The home care industry is a good example. Similarly, dentists, chiropractors, nannies, public relations specialists and sales [are more likely to be resilient].”
You (Probably) Won’t Become Irrelevant
Facing unknowns is always scary, and AI’s adoption poses a lot of those unknowns. Loaiza-Saa leaves us with comforting parting words, though.
“Technology doesn’t usually eliminate entire jobs — it automates specific tasks or functions within a job. Usually, it transforms the job rather than fully automating it. While some jobs might be lost – which is not [a] new [phenomenon] – most jobs will be complemented.”
Pittsburgh-based writer Brynne Conroy is the founder of Femme Frugality, where she regularly writes about hope in hard economic times. She is also the author of “The Feminist Financial Handbook,” and is a regular contributor to The Penny Hoarder.
