What happens to kids if AI takes entry level jobs? What you advising them?

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On back of the worming class boys thread. If AI takes over white collar jobs, what happens to all the m.c. communities. Education and aspiration became a feature post industrialisation once blue collar jobs disappeared and you needed education to get ahead in office jobs. What happens now? My kid is only 6 but already thinking about this.

If AI takes jobs, does education become pointless. How are parents guiding their kids? Looking at parts that lost industries, will parts of South east become like that once office jobs go?

If even Oxbridge and STEM is no longer enough to guarantee a comfortable life, then what for the young people?

Interesting re accounting and law, as another thread the other day said accounting is already dead.

I work in accounting, I’m senior enough I’ll probably see it my career before AI can replace me - but I’m not sure my career would have been as successful as it is if I was starting out now, much less in 7 years. Our graduate roles can almost already be entirely replaced by AI, we’re just choosing not to so that (but have cut the number of available places significantly, and we are one of the biggest graduate recruiters in accountancy).

My ds has a Saturday job now as a pool lifeguard. It's a legal requirement, the pool can't open without a team of lifeguards on rotation. AI can't dive into a pool and drag out a drowning child or perform cpr.

And he's taking a degree in renewable energy engineering. He wants to build hydroelectric plants and off shore wind farms. Every project has individual challenges, so while AI can help, human engineers with experience and imagination will always be needed.

I started work as the PC revolution happened. We were all told we'd be working 3 day weeks within a decade because PCs would reduce our workload to a few hours a week. That we should all plan what we would do with all our free leisure time 😁

40 years later I'm still flat out, 5 days a week. So I wouldn't worry about the young just yet. Wait and see how it pans out.

In many industries including mine there are still people needed who can use AI well and “mark its homework” so it won’t replace us entirely. We have entry level jobs where you are using AI to do the job instead of doing the job yourself (which currently sometimes takes longer than just doing it!). I see it as similar to the invention of the battery calculator (my dad was an accountant). It reduced the workforce but actual accountants were and are still needed

Entry level roles can be replaced by AI, but you still need (more senior) humans somewhere in the process to provide oversight.
That oversight requires experience, so it makes sense that companies still need to recruit enough graduates to eventually become those experienced senior members of staff when the current ones retire. Won't need as many though, so graduate roles will just become more and more competitive. Not sure what the surplus graduates will do.

I personally think there will be some common sense appraisal of AI and its usefulness at some point. Already in the information sphere we are training staff in its use as a tool, very much not as a replacement for thinking.

There is a problem in recruitment for those seeking jobs post A Level/Further Education. Since the 90s employers have been recruiting graduates into some traditional entry levels in this area. I doubt we can reverse this but the quality of appointees with degrees is very often little or no different from post further ed appointments.

I predict in the future, the leisure industry will increase hugely.

I have already seen adverts for weekend breaks or holidays with zero technology, back to nature, forest bathing, wild swimming, healthy food, exercise, art, poetry.

I have seen mobile mini wood fired saunas in seaside car parks.

I believe ancient artisan crafts will expand.

DNA genetics is linking people across the world, this will expand.

If robots take over driving, new jobs will be needed.

My old job was EA legal sec. I recently got a part time admin job in an area where I could potentially progress.

I’m now going to be retaining in a role where I can wfh and hopefully do part time. Utilising previous skills. Don’t want to retire yet but could potentially afford to, I enjoy my work.

In my industry (tech) we have hugely reduced grad hires, and senior people are now directing AI to do the job that a team of juniors would have done in the past.

Of course this means that the pipeline of senior people is now effectively broken - there are no new graduates to learn, to develop, to gain experience, and to be promoted to senior positions.

But when your horizon is only as far as the end of the next quarter, no-one cares.

This sort of thing has always happened. Look at the "grand houses" of the Victorian or Edwardian era and how many people were employed in the kitchens, the house, the gardens. Now an equivalently wealthy person may still employ some staff, but only a handful and with different skills to the past as tools and automation and computers have changed what you can do. How many staff did the average farm used to have 100 years ago, that is now farmed by one man and a couple of seasonal helpers? Offices had clerks and typing pools and "office boys". There were specialist draftsmen, now there's CAD. Even in my 20 years of work experience, when we started everything external involved posting letters and we had a post room and admin people who spent most of their time handling post. Now I can't remember the last time I printed and posted a letter. But equally we have whole teams that didn't exist when I started. My current job didn't! We're advertising for an AI cyber security specialist, even 5 years ago people would have said what on earth is that.

You need flexibility as there are few "careers for life" But there will likely always be jobs to do..

Apprenticeships and learning a trade is the way to go imo. Also there will be jobs created in the future that don’t exist at the moment that people will be employed to do.

For anyone thinking of a particular career path, this is a fun (and sobering) tool to explore: willrobotstakemyjob.com/

Did these sorts of things impact one industry at a time or were they far reaching across all jobs.

I can see moving from horses to cars was a fairly quick transition so a lot of horse jobs were lost (but actually the carriage needed a driver, the car need a driver, the horse need a farrier, the car needs a tyre fitter) presumably that change didnt affect accountancy, law, nursing, teaching etc all at the same time.

I feel that AI and robotics is affecting every single job all at the same time in a way that doesnt just change how a human does the work but removes the number of humans by a lot and in a quick time frame.

Not sure about Law at Entry level though
.AI can now compose letters which were once written by paralegals or trainee solicitors
In fact many self employed plumbers, electricians and builders earn more than lawyers

My worry is precisely the speed and that it affects everything. Seniors i.e. my friends all say they should be fine. They still seem to place a lot of emphasis on their kids doing well in A'levels and going to uni. Basically what we did. What happens when there is nothing at the other end?

At some point common sense will presumably click in. AI can't truly replace a whole strata of persons as it does need to be viewed as a tool. It really is as simple as that.

Trades aren’t a complete answer - and a lot of people who go into them are broken by the time they’re 50. There are only so many years you can carry baths up and down stairs and climb under floorboards before bits of you start falling apart.

I think there will be growth areas such as adult social care (as we live longer), recreation and heritage (as we have more time off), and arts and culture - one of the things that’s become apparent is that a lot of people don’t like the lack of ‘authenticity’ of AI. They don’t always like ‘perfect’ music or art or performances. People still like stories, and communicating, and being absorbed in an interest or hobby. Of course, the data scientists and medics and engineers will still have jobs, but they will evolve.

My mum was trained as a shorthand typist.

the job became obsolete about twenty years after she joined the workforce.

shorthand (an alternative way of writing that y it s much faster so you can record speech at close to speaking speed) still exists and is used but mostly by journalists these days.

typists don’t exist at all.

she moved into more general secretarial roles and was a PA for a while and then an EA.

then she retrained and did what was always her first love patchwork and quilting and taught it in night school, evening Ed classes, workshops and privately. Some commissions as well. It paid pretty well to be honest.

when she left school in the 60s loads and loads of people did typist training. Just doesn’t exist now but those jobs have become office admin, personal assistant, executive assistant.

Well, I've been working in this industry for 25 years, and I've yet to see commonsense applied when it comes to tech adoption strategy.

And you only have to read the latest rantings of guys like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or the utterly deranged Alex Karp to realise that the leaders of our industry are basically sociopaths. 'Disruption' has been the buzzword for decades - they would absolutely see having hundreds of thousands of roles being made redundant and replaced with machines as a good thing.

I'm in tech information, we don't listen to them at all

These are good ideas. Mine have fledged but I really tried to push infrastructure!! I think it's a great industry.

They've actually gone into AI, ironically.

OP, I don't blame you for being worried but it's premature. See what makes your DC thrive and then think about what the future looks like for them. X

We can’t match kids to jobs. We can’t advise them what job to do. What we can do is teach them to be adaptable and resilient and to develop so called “soft” skills that make them employable.

AI is here, it’s not going anywhere and the world of work has shifted beyond all recognition.

For decades we’ve had a knowledge based economy. That knowledge is now accessible to all via AI and the internet. That’s the change, and it’s why qualifications are no longer the most important factor in getting work.

There has always been an evolution of jobs - but I think the speed in which AI is developing is going to cause a big increase in unemployment - which then becomes a catch 22 situation - if we are not employing as many people, yes the corporations get richer but if less people have money to spend then no-one is going to be able to buy the goods and services.
I spoek to DS friend the other day who is on a gap year - he had to apply for 150 jobs (the usual teen jobs, bar, restaurant, factory, retail etc) before he got something - when I was that age I could walk into a job within hours of starting to look.

There will have to be a point that the powers that be that control everything - governments and corporations will have to stop and consider the bigger picture. No point have automated systems if no-one can pay for the service. Money makes the world go round but I think AI will disrupt that circle so a societal change in the way we view work and income will need to be adapted.

If no one has a job how is anyone going to pay for the goods and services provided by the AI?

If no one has a job perhaps we could all use our free time working out how to game the system and take back the power and the money from the tech giants?

Yes, but many accountancy firms are partnerships which do not encourage longevity, they encourage maximising returns for the current partners and so if the current partners all make millions and leave nothing behind, they might be quite alright with that - which fundamentally changes the landscape for graduates and any entrants into that market.

As the AI advances it’s also entirely possible that it cannibalises up the chain. It’s currently operating at a graduate level but it could plausibly be operating at a partner level in say 10 years. Couple that with the fact the clients will increasingly be digital natives as the Gen Z and Gen A become adults, then you might end up with a customer base who never want to speak to a human as they’re more comfortable taking advice from AI.

So actually, accountancy and law (law is not my area but Richard Susskind has written books about how this may change - and how for example divorce courts would be fairer and more efficient with no lawyers or judges, the facts are pumped into AI and the answer is spit out based on established case law) could feasibly just be software sectors in 30 years.