How do you see your profession surviving the AI wave of the next 5 years?

I am quite confident AI will not be able to run a small farmers market in rural Mexico, but I could be wrong

Judging by the current state, it means more work for me undoing all the fuckups caused by people trusting AI. The larger societal/economic issues will have knock-on-effects that could impact it negatively though.

Just fine. SLP. If they invent AI that does speech therapy with a 3-year-old child with level 3 autism and pica, I wish them luck.

I’m a high school teacher and I’m confident that AI Will lead to a reduction of technology use in schools. We already see rampant cheating and the kids are losing their ability to think and problem solve.

More likely will be replaced by offshore team than AI

As an artist it’s a tad worrisome. I believe there will be those that will still want original pieces but….

I'm a mental health therapist. Business will be booming!

I’m a bedside nurse. Good luck to AI trying to do an enema, or better yet, insert an NG tube, on a screaming patient with dementia haha.

3D artist here… I’m not sure but I feel like I’m F’d

AI can't bend metal parts for shit

Oh it won't. With the workload and repetitiveness of the job it would be really easy to develop software that can do everything for me, faster and with less errors. I was just looking online and found several apps and plugins that can process workflows in hours when it takes me days to finish.

If AI can wrangle combative non-verbal 5 year olds with level 3 autism, be my guest lol

Melania Trump literally walked out with an AI robot two days ago in a plan to replace teachers. She claims that her robot can create "a more complete person." I took this job to teach kids to think, to allow them a safe space to be themselves, and to teach classic American literature. Most of the classics are banned, safe spaces are potential lawsuits, and AI is already being integrated into next school years curriculum. I don't want AI to take over my job, but my government sure does.

At my last job at a call center, pretty sure they already have. Glad I left.

I'm retired, so its good. I'm just gonna watch the world devolve before my eyes until my time comes.

I do software development. I use chatgpt extensively and I'm not worried about getting replaced, AI is actually really ass at doing anything complicated. I still use it because it's so fast it costs me basically nothing to try and occasionally it'll fix my problem. The only thing it's really replacement level at is stuff that's basic and extensively documented which can save time, but is also exactly the sort of thing you can go learn yourself in 10 minutes anyways. What I am worried about is an AI bubble destroying the economy because I keep seeing shit like this.

Pretty sure AI won't be shoeing horses anytime soon... 🤣

It has had a terrible effect on the writing and editing industry, which is so sad. Why the hell would anyone invent something that does away with what makes us human? I can't believe it some days. Broadly speaking, I think some companies (the ones that put too much importance on it) will struggle or fail when the bubble pops, and other companies (that were agile enough to work around it) will be fine. Some people (who allowed it to erode their abilities) will struggle in future careers, and some people (who understood what AI was and used it accordingly) will thrive.

I was a professional writer. I retired. I was also massively lucky to have had both a successful career and the fortune of being born when I was. I fear the outcomes for many coming of age now

Im a nurse, id love to see an AI chatbot or Boston dynamics android deal with what i have to deal with

Pretty easily. Some dumbfuck computer can't turn a wrench or patch drywall

AI/LLM is a tool. Useful, but is not going to replace engineers.

My employer is too c**** to automate me away in 5 years, check back in 50.

As a software engineer my job will not survive. The only way for anyone in software to survive now is to utilize AI and agents to the fullest extent. There will be no new junior engineers. There probably will be no new mid level engineers. Those who are already seated in the industry will be the last. People constantly say how AI code is slop but truth is, the code is great. I use it and it comes up with some insane and elegant solutions with the new top of the line models. Sometimes it actually shocks me. Truthfully I barely write code anymore besides fixing simple bugs/errors that the AI missed or didn't account for. However in another few years, that will be not be an issue anymore. If you are want to pursue software engineering. Don't. Unless you can guarantee that you can get into a major tech company, there is no point. The market has been oversaturated since 2020 and it's only getting worse every year; not to mention AI accelerating that by replacing a large portion of low end positions.

AI isn't going to Iran to get shot at for this c****.

I don’t because we got bigger fish to fry right now. I don’t know if y’all realized but with the way the world’s going, we may not have anything in 5 years.

As a high school drama teacher, if AI takes over my job then I might as well go live in a cave like Timon of Athens, because I’d want no part of society at that point. 

I'm disabled, so my 'profession' is sitting at home playing video games. So.. pretty well actually.

I read chromatography and mass spec to certify forensic toxicology reports. An AI could eventually, if not now, certify results (in the sense of determining positive, negative, etc). However, many of those reports are directly tied to court battles, affidavits, testimonies, child services, etc., and every time I certify something I’m taking accountability in the legal sense. An AI can’t take responsibility and be held accountable, so it still needs a human element to at least sign a name. I can get called into court to testify regarding some reports because of this, and I doubt an AI can take the stand. Or, if it can, I don’t want to be a part of society at that point.

If you work as an AI dev, you will constantly have to keep maintaining, implementing, and finding ways to evolve AI models, LLMs, NLPs, etc. As an AI dev peronally, i think that as long as i can keep up with the trends, I'll be safe

University admissions. Honestly think once the hype dies down it won't make much of a difference. My main worry is that in automating tasks it will only leave behind the kind of strategy, planning, talk work and none of the actual doing (which gets boring after a while). And I definitely hope the slop era dies down soon. But otherwise, I reckon people know already that it's great for some things, c*** for others, and things will sorta even out.

I doubt people are going to want ai run weddings any time soon so im probably good

I work as a storage engineer. AI works with data, so that data still has to be stored somewhere. For now, I’m not worried. But I still have about 40 years left to work, and a lot will probably change and develop during that time

I'm an accountant, and while I am genuinely a bit nervous about AI replacing me in at least some capacity in the next few years, having seen the AI stuff quickbooks has currently implemented I'm much less nervous for now. Shit is garbage tier.

ai wont be touching my job. first, my semi would need to be swapped with an electric one. that infrastructure alone is prohibitively expensive. then ai would have to navigate michigan roads year round. i drive on some roads that google street view cars dont go down, so that'll be an issue. next, there would need to be some other robots to unload my trailer and load the pallets onto the delivery trucks. that's part of my job.

By building data centers…

I'm fairly confident that AI cannot replace my job unless my company is willing to also replace tens of millions of dollars worth of custom robotics with brand new machinery that eliminates the need for human hands to move items from one robot to the next. Not saying it's impossible, but the implementation would be at least be so ludicrously expensive there's no way I wouldn't have months of warning to jump ship.

Unless we get to the point where AI can build and maintain its own hardware, I think I should be fairly safe.

Yes. They tell us to use it and it does all my work

If you're white collar, don't kid yourself. Question is, what will be done about it? I hate people being dependent on government, and they're so corrupt they can't even keep the meager existing safety nets solvent. But I don't see how things don't turn post-apoc without some kind of UBI. But then how do you get the plumbers and garbage men to show up for work?

AI is moving into medicine in a big way. I think it will be a few more decades before we have fully robot surgeons, if ever.

The areas at risk are any job in digital data and media or analysis of digital data and media. What we are calling AI reduces the number of humans needed, it does not replace all of them. People currently in those fields over a certain age will struggle to use AI effectively to increase productivity. The smartest thing employees and future employees can do is become competent in how to interact with AI and get it to achieve desired results.

I dont think AI can visit and examine patients with dementia in their homes nor judge whether or not to prescribe opiates as p********** let alone manage emergencies.

I think mine will be fine. They're not thinking of replacing train drivers with AI yet. The future is more towards in-cab signalling via the installation of ERTMS.

My job depends upon me being in a lab, debugging complex electrical circuits to fix problems whose root cause or causes have no obvious connection to the symptoms seen, and then working with engineers whose goals and requirements are often in direct conflict with mine. I don't see that work being re-assigned to an AI. Though we do gather so much data nowadays that it requires both deterministic algorithms and generative AI to complete the analysis, so that we don't miss anything major. 

Working on traditional pieces of art or ultra customised builds. … some work that need reproduce an ancient methods Or niche market that are more costly to customise a script than market for. Oh and of course social work… It is still easier nowadays to send your kids in the street or as prostitutes to earn money from them in short term than helping them get a life with a decent diploma that has no guaranty to keep the happy in their adult life because you are too busy playing on your phones…

I think there’s potential for the software industry to get tight. Gonna have to be adaptable and be good to survive it. Not completely going away but might get pretty competitive.

Being the person who knows how it works best and helps everyone else deal with it.

As a live sound engineer, I can imagine it…. But many many years from now (if ever). How long until they make practical robots that can mic amps and re-reroute the wires on a sound board?

AI will not be building and maintaining elevators/escalators anytime soon, nowhere close enough in robotics to make that possible.

Is being unemployed a profession because i only see growth in the future.

I think we are a long way from AI handling the physical part of HVAC work. It’s helpful in writing summaries and finding solutions to some systems though.

My profession is perpetually five to ten years behind most technology trends, so any of them that burst quickly just skip us by entirely.

I have trouble seeing ai moving around in the physical world taking actual pictures of people.

I can’t think of anything I do that AI would take over. Mostly relationship based.

Commercial Nuclear Power Project Engineer. Actually looking forward to my rollout of more advanced AI for use by employees. It will save a lot of time on the paperwork aspect of the job, which is the part everyone hates anyways. Also a rollout of an an AI that can read our document databases to answer questions without having to search through literally hundreds of thousands of documents each hundred of pages long for information. It can never replace people though as the NRC has strict rules on documentation that requires people.

I work in a field that's very vulnerable to AI, but since I work for a government, each employee could literally 8x their output and we'd still have a basically bottomless well of work.

I test parts at a factory that are currently very much in demand. I'm pretty sure humans do my job better than any existing robots, for now, and I think it'll be a long time before there's *affordable* robots that can do the job as well as humans. 

No change at all. We build locomotives and passenger trains. AI will help in development, but there's still a lot of manual labor involved

Yes. Kids Need actual humans to teach them. AI isn't the revolution the elites want it to be. It will burn and the people will rise.

Customers hate, despise, loath ivrs/ai so I'm probably going to be safe for at least 5 years. Gotta figure out something else tho.

Public libraries will be forced to shelve books with AI covers and text, much to our protest. So far, in my experience, we've avoided being forced to use it for office tasks, like writing and checking our work. A lot of library work is public-facing (like making cards and helping with printing) and physical (like shelving), so at least those tasks are safe.

I work for a privately owned packaging company, producing custom corrugated boxes and accessories. Indirectly, AI could take away work for very simple boxes where the length/width/depth are known, but that is already a solved equation used by designing. Directly, AI cannot physically feel or measure the products or understand the requirements that into keeping the product secure or displayed as intended. A salesman might be able to learn how to describe it properly to the AI, but they often miss details when talking to the designers and there are multiple conversations to get things where the customer actual wants it. Additionally, the programs used to design are relatively cumbersome to use and very specific, so AI would need to be integrated there.

AI is a bubble, much like the Dot Com era was. It’s just a matter of time when it bursts.

AI is changing education in many ways, but I would be very surprised indeed if parents allowed some tech bro CEO to dispense with classroom teachers entirely. Our society isn’t yet decayed enough to hand over its children to machines. To do that, they’d have to get rid of the school system entirely and take it online, which is virtually impossible from where we are now

it'll fail us as the quality will drop, my profession will take a big hit to headcount and it will take a long time to recover 

Pretty sure AI cannot keep 30 ninth graders in check for even fifteen minutes per class, much less 90. 🤣

The fact that my job has already had automated tools for decades but Texas lacks the education and infrastructure to maintain them, so I'm still here.

My company implementing new IT projects slower than a team of tortoises traveling across the world.

Mine will certainly shrink but hopefully will be better paid.

Tech support for a chain restaurant the people we talk to barely know what a Ethernet cable is I’m pretty secure and the owners are pretty adamant about hiring local people

I think food service is safe for now especially when I know how Jim likes his breakfast and croissant toasted.

Zero worries, there’s a shortage of dental professionals.

I work in back up power generation for data centers. If Skynet takes over I’m set. /s

I'm a defense contractor, penciler, and musician. War, art, and music are always gonna be a thing.

5 years? Most likely fine. 10 to 15? It's possible but unlikely. 20-30? I'd be shocked if ai doesn't completely take over processing paperwork.

Pretty sure AI will not be able to take care of Mentally Disabled Adults. Then again as much as and as long as I smoked, Being around in 5 years would surprise me.

I’m a dog groomer so I think I’ll be ok.

Not every manufacturing can be automated (at least with our technology right now). I work in plastic extrusion. AI is not going to replace the people on the floor or engineers working on projects in manufacturing.

The profession will be fine. Those who can afford it might be not so lucky and it will hit me as a knock on effect. I work in the home improvement business.

Some dude with a billion is reading all your comments as a challenge.

I havent seen any technical evolution in 10 years. And AI hasn't changed it one bit. I think maintenance is pretty safe

It will supplement mine in a positive way. I think in some cases… these billionaires will find they lose A LOT of money dreaming up how we’ll use their tech and then.. we won’t use it. Example is Zuckerberg’s $80 billion in cumulative operating losses for his stupid block looking metaverse. Whatever robotic teacher Melania is pushing recently … nobody wants that. Make it - watch nobody use it. Use tech for dangerous jobs ppl don’t want to do like Send robo paratroopers so our badass men don’t have to go to war for nothing.

Fine. Between the manual work still needed and the human safety aspect, AI isn't going to replace pharmacists or techs anytime soon.

Well I don't think ai can build cabinets or furniture so probably pretty well

AI won't build you a new deck or replace your windows or install a new kitchen or repair all the rot on your home

With corporate shareholders asking for more revenue and more profit quarter after quarter, the only way my company will survive is for everyone to become more productive via AI. There are simply not enough people to do the work. I am in software tech sales.

Work in IT, someone needs to figure out how to implement and fix things, figure it may as well be me.

Paramedic  Absolutely. It may be added to assist us, but AI and robots are a long way off being able to enter a hoarder house and run a full code with extrication 

I see nothing but darkness. Am I supposed to see something? Maybe I'm doing this wrong

I run very specialized heavy equipment for a very niche industry. Even if an AI could do my job, there wouldn’t be a market to develop an AI for a field so narrow.

Union

I used to work for a phone store (EE) when I was young, and the software they used was still from the early orange and t mobile days. I highly doubt these companies are willing to invest massively in AI.

I'll be there, doing maintenance to those agentic systems because the company will still deny investment on data quality, as usual.

My boss doesn’t like change and still uses an aol email

i feel like my job as a barista is pretty safe tbh.. people want the human connection when they get coffee and robots can't make latte art that looks like your dog yet lol.

It won’t hurt me— I’m the one adapting to using it and any other new tool available to make me better at my job. It’s you that’s going to lose your job to it.

AI can't travel through remote northern forests to measure streams and rivers or electrofish so I'll be alright.

AI is incapable of doing farm work using methods and tools from 1850s Texas

Industrial maintenance mechanic. Probably will be fine for another 10-20 years. But we'll see how industry adapts. There's state of the art factories and then there's factories with machines that were made in the 50's that are still extremely profitable. Until industry changes in a grand scale, I think Im safe.

Paramedic Its infiltrating our charting software, but really has no way to actually do my job unless they get next level with robots

i’m a registered nurse and our EMR, epic, is already incorporating AI. 🥴

Call center customer service. Headcount will reduce even further. Outsourcing is already tough and metrics just get stricter. I have no idea how they'll manage to keep good people since turnover is already high.

If they can reach AI to f*** up 6 welds in a day then good on them

The day AI can set up, cable and program industrial HVAC systems I'll get back to you on that

They can’t drive outside and unload à flatbed of pallets

Well I work in sports. If people stop caring about actual athletic contests and are fine just watching AI generated ones, we might as well just mill ourselves as a species. So either I’m fine or we’re all deeply spiritually fucked

I’ll more than likely be cleaning up its mess with the rest of my profession.

I'll probably still have a job in 5 years. In 15 years, I'll probably be retired, and I wouldn't be surprised if AI starts to take engineering jobs within 15 years, so I may be one of the last or in the first wave of layoffs.

I’m a attorney. There will still be lawyers, just less of them. A properly used AI can perform a lot of the tasks that a junior attorney would usually perform at a large law firm (document review/simple case summaries/ect) with oversight. AI can help with a lot of this kind of “grunt” legal work but it is unable to replace an experienced attorney. AI is helpful tool when properly used but its abilities are overhyped and over reliance will come to the detriment of effective legal practice.

Physician. 100% certain AI is not taking my job.

Well luckily I burned out of my tech career a little before covid, so I already let go of that path and started looking into other careers. Somehow I landed on massage therapy, and with the way things are going with AI and the job market I'm pretty glad I chose something that's a physical trade.

I work in sales and kinda worried

It is wild to see everyone panicking about these new automated tools when I remember when we were terrified that compilers would put every coder out of a job. Back in the day, the real skill was never just knowing the syntax, but rather understanding how to architect a system that does not break under pressure... something these current models still struggle to grasp in complex environments. If you want to survive the next few years, stop focusing on the rote output and start acting as the editor and high-level strategist for your projects. We used to spend weeks on manual tasks that now take seconds, yet the need for someone to verify the logic remains just as critical as it ever was. The more things change, the more the value shifts toward the person who knows which questions to ask rather than just knowing how to write the answers.icking ab

I am confident that my patients won’t go to AI for anesthesia. They are more terrified of the anesthesia than the surgery.

I don’t and that’s okay.

I'm a civil engineer. I think we are safe. People still need someone to blame whenever there's a f***'d structures. Drafters though, that's a different thing.

I’m an archaeologist. AI can’t dig. The best part is that the people losing their jobs now are all the STEM majors who told me an anthropology degree was useless.