Is AI Coming for Your Job? Here’s Which Ones Are Safe

Additional Resources

• Axios Survey
• U.S. News & World Report

Transcript

Pete Newsome: 0:00

Welcome to Cornering the Job Market for Friday, January 16th. Today’s headlines include more insight into AI’s impact on the job market and U.S. News World Report’s top jobs for 2026. Let’s get right to it. Axios just published an article titled Most Lower Wage Workers Think AI Threatens Their Jobs. It’s based on a survey of more than 3,000 workers with bachelor’s degrees who earn less than 50,000 a year. Here’s what stands out 52% feel negative or uncertain about AI’s impact on their job prospects, and 49% believe AI could flat out replace their job. At the same time, only 30% would choose to stop AI companies from developing technology that could eliminate jobs. I have to be honest, I would have expected that number to be higher based on the negative sentiment and fear.

0:47

The poll also touched on government involvement. 56% feel the U.S. government isn’t prepared to address the opportunities and challenges posed by AI. And two out of three want the government to do training to prepare the workforce for AI. Don’t rely on the government. They’re not coming to save you with this, nor would they do a good job if they tried. But the reality is the people at the top don’t think job displacement is a problem. They’re continually telling us that there’s going to be a net job gain and there’s nothing to worry about with that. So they’re not coming to help, that’s for sure. Also, 86% of respondents said they’d participate in free training, and 76% said they’d feel more confident and prepared for AI if provided such training. There is free training everywhere. You don’t need to wait for that either. There’s no reason to. If you don’t know where to find resources, let me know.

1:43

But there’s so much out there. Heck, start with ChatGPT and go from there. Get on YouTube. There are an abundance of resources out there, and you should want AI training. That is imperative right now. But free? That’s not a problem. It’s out there. Now let’s move up the income ladder. Axios published an article that looks at AI’s impact on white-collar jobs. They outline several developments that signal what’s coming next. First, they point to a recent report from Goldman Sachs that says AI can already automate 25% of U.S. work hours. And a recent statement from Elon Musk when he was on the Moonshots podcast, where he said AI is good enough right now to replace half of all white-collar jobs. Now you may hear those numbers and think they’re grossly exaggerated. And perhaps they are. But if they’re even close to reality, the impact is going to be devastating. They also mentioned a new tool Anthropic announced this week called Cowork. Its purpose is to literally do your work so you don’t have to.

2:44

You give cowork access to the files on your computer, it reads them, organizes them, updates spreadsheets, creates new documents, all of it. Essentially, you explain what you want done, it plans the steps, and then executes them while you spend time on something else, or I don’t know, perhaps nothing at all. I find this simultaneously exciting and terrifying. But my takeaway from all of this, and I will continue to sound this alarm, is despite not yet seeing mass layoffs, there are signs everywhere that point to the potential for exactly that to happen. And my concern is that AI adoption is taking place much faster than past technology shifts. And most people aren’t paying attention to what can or perhaps will happen as a result. So don’t be caught off guard. Take the time to learn how to incorporate AI into your job, whatever it is. In today’s last headline, U.S. News World Report just released their 100 best jobs list for 2026.

3:45

Unsurprisingly, a lot of healthcare jobs on there. Four in the top 10. Nurse practitioner, physician assistant, medical and health services manager, and speech language pathologist. There were also four technology jobs in the top 10. IT manager, information security analyst, software developer, and data scientist. And then rounding out the top 10 are financial manager and pilot. Pilot. Alright, so we’re not ready for robots to fly the planes yet. But I just finished watching the series Pluribus on Apple TV, and let’s just say my wheels have been spinning as a result of that. So let’s not get too comfortable that any profession is here to stay long term. Um, great show, worth checking out if you haven’t already. So those are your headlines for today.

4:34

Before we close, here is a fun fact the first computer mouse was made of wood. That’s bringing us back in time a little bit. I’m not sure how that worked exactly. There had to be some electronics involved in that, but apparently it was made of wood. I’m gonna believe it until proven otherwise. Thank you for listening today. Have a great weekend. Please like, subscribe, share with anyone who you think might be interested, and I will keep sharing your headlines. Talk soon.