The talk of AI taking over humans isn’t anything new. Our culture has frequently highlighted machines either turning on us or rendering humans obsolete altogether. However, all that was before ChatGPT came to town and started to make this fever dream a reality. While we are not fully there yet, ChatGPT and AI, in general, might be on the path to taking over certain jobs, and in some cases, replacing humans altogether. So, is the era of “Skynet” finally here? Let’s talk about the jobs that are likely to be replaced by AI (or ChatGPT, for now) while also discussing if it’s already too late.
Jobs At Risk of Being Replaced by ChatGPT
As mentioned above, with the rise of ChatGPT and other similar AI tools, there are specific jobs that are more at risk when compared to others. While that doesn’t necessarily mean humans are already obsolete and out the window, it does signal signs of more and more tasks being overtaken by AI. After combing through the internet, including our own personal experiences, we have compiled a long list of jobs that are at risk of being taken by AI and ChatGPT sooner rather than later. However, remember that the list is speculative and can change depending on the advancement of AI and its actual adoption.
1. Mathematicians
While you would think mathematicians are safe from ChatGPT, their jobs are one of the most at risk. Maths has always been a subject where folks have issues solving complex problems. However, powered by the latest GPT-4 model, ChatGPT (and AI, in general) can do a lot. Even at this point, ChatGPT can solve complex mathematical equations and formulas.
All the bot requires is user input in the form of a simple question or feed it a dataset. Using provided input, ChatGPT can solve all types of problems, including one that confounds most users and teachers alike. From doing simple additions to solving complex SAT questions, AI can do it all. Furthermore, as time passes, its capabilities will only increase.
We have already seen a monumental rise in ChatGPT, risking jobs by helping tons of folk online with math help. This transcends to not students solving their homework to working professionals using ChatGPT to solve complex math problems. In fact, there are loads of custom-built AI-powered bots that are geared toward solving mathematical problems.
2. Interpretators and Translators
Interpreters and translators are the select few people that either help users make sense of documents or guide them through cities and help them not get lost. However, as the use of artificial intelligence escalates, ChatGPT is casting a shadow over their jobs as well. While Google Translate has always been in the AI game, it has only increased with time.
If you missed the latest news, you should know that the GPT-4 LLM supports over 26 different languages. This includes widely used languages and more nuanced ones. Support of this kind makes ChatGPT not only more accessible but instrumental in sentence, document, and even word translation. The AI can effortlessly translate just about anything, but it hallucinates more in other languages than English.
The use of AI in text translation and interpretation has been in use for some time now. Besides Google Translate, voice communication and translation are being led by the likes of Whisper API. For the unaware, Whisper is OpenAI’s speech recognition system that can translate and transcribe in multiple languages. It has extended support for specific accents and will help interface and enable voice translation. Plus, an extended use of AI has been done by language learning apps like Duolingo, which have integrated the newest GPT-4 LLM into their app for a host of features.
3. Poets, Lyricists, and Creative Writers
One of the most argued points when it comes to humans being better than AI is creativity. After all, how can one expect a machine to be more in touch with the world compared to an actual human? Sadly, that is changing quickly with AI risking jobs in the creative industry. If you have used ChatGPT to quickly draft a haiku or two, you know what we are talking about.
AI, in general, is capable of undertaking a wide amount of creative endeavors. This includes going from small poems to writing full-fledged stories. Chatbots like ChatGPT require minimal input or intervention when it comes to dishing out poems, stories, haikus, and much more. You need only provide minimal details if at all, and it will give you a 500-word story about the end of the world.
We have already started to see ChatGPT take over several creative jobs as people begin using the bot for all sorts of expressions. Users can use the best writing apps that weave together stories and remedy writer’s block. More recently, a person asked ChatGPT to come up with a short horror story and the results were truly amazing. Not just that, many people are already using ChatGPT to write books and sell e-books on Amazon. With advancements like these, it’s not too long before creative writers and poets find themselves battling for jobs against ChatGPT.
4. Web Designers
Almost all good website we encounter online is painstakingly developed by web designers who go through every small detail in code. This includes a major chunk of web development. Unfortunately, the jobs of web designers are also coming under fire due to AI like ChatGPT. While services like Wix use AI to help users build websites, bots have started to come up that do much more.
Instead of using a rigid template, web developers (especially novice ones) are now using ChatGPT can write full-fledged website code in multiple programming languages. So asking ChatGPT to construct a website using HTML, CSS, and Javascript renders a full output code that you can use for your own work. Users can even fine-tune their requirements to get the exact website design that works for them.
While the jobs of web designers have always been a bit challenged by AI, ChatGPT changes the game altogether. In fact, there is no shortage of websites designed by AI that look extremely professional and crisp. AI services like Github Copilox X and Amazon Codewhisperer have also proven to be vital when it comes to providing in-depth programming help.
5. News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
As a technology journalist myself, I dish out thousands of words daily. For any writer in the profession, each article has hours of meticulous research, fact-checking, and insights behind it. This, as people can expect, takes a considerable amount of time and effort. However, with the advent of ChatGPT, that effort is now slowly being wasted if not fully gone to waste just yet.
Under a short minute, AI like ChatGPT can write long-form articles on any topic conceivable. The chatbot pairs a good amount of research behind it and the output requires minimal editing. In the same vein, AI can write YouTube and Instagram video scripts, provided you give it a topic and video length. The scripts are extremely detailed. However, in this particular case, they might require more detail because of GPT’s dataset which is limited to 2021.
As before, we have already seen AI make its way into journalism. In fact, publications such as Buzzfeed have a series of 40+ articles written almost entirely by AI but powered by human ideas. Publications like CNET also follow suit with similar results. While not as well written as a thought-out human piece, the pieces rank high on Google and are an excellent segue into what could be a replacement for journalists and content creators.
6. Lawyers and Paralegals
While paralegals and legal administrators are not literal translators, they also have the important job of receiving complex legal documents and converting them into summaries and briefs. As you can already assume, summarizing legal documents into digestible briefs is not an easy task. However, AI has also been useful there.
ChatGPT and its counterparts can easily create legal briefs and even lawsuits out of data fed to them. One doesn’t even need to provide a format as the bot is already up to date with it. However, even if you do, it will dish out all manner of legal documents in a jiffy. And for a working paralegal who focuses on lawsuit research and creation, draft making, and case development, this smells like trouble.
Users on the internet have already started to leverage ChatGPT for drafting lawsuits against individuals and companies. This is worrying as ChatGPT does under a minute which might normally take a few days. Furthermore, AI has even tried to dive into real life with an AI robot coming very close to fighting a court case. While the idea was finally scraped, combined with its already growing capability to create content, it spells trouble for jobs in the legal sector.
7. Accountants and Auditors
Like the law, financial work is tied to a sector full of different responsibilities and work. From creating profit/loss tables and balance sheets to drafting entire financial reports, there’s a lot to be done. As before, it demands a good amount of financial work and research. However, ChatGPT again dives into its virtual toes here.
From simple Excel formulas, automating small tasks, and market research to anything financially complex, AI can again do it all. While the latest GPT-4 language model warns against full reliance on its use, one can still use it for all manner of legal document creation and general work. Done in tandem with monitoring and edits, ChatGPT can weigh heavily against jobs in the legal sector.
However, there is another way of looking at it. Used properly, bots like ChatGPT can reduce the load and time taken by menial tasks. This saves time for high-profile accounting work required by corporations. Even OpenAI demonstrated this very thing in the GPT-4 developer stream, where the LLM could be used to calculate taxes for you. And possibly even file them soon, thanks to ChatGPT plugins.
8. Teachers
The teaching industry is one that has mostly remained the same for a long time. Whether it comes to teaching methods or the environment, most things are the same. However, as AI comes to power, it’s providing a welcome help here. We already discussed how bots like ChatGPT are amazing at creating complex programming code or breaking down difficult topics.
In the same way, AI has proven itself useful by helping students effortlessly explain topics. The application of AI applies to all manner of subjects. From solving difficult mathematical equations to explaining the Archimedes principle like you’re five years old, ChatGPT covers everything. Not for nothing, students have started to use AI to write essays prompting teachers to use a variety of the best AI plagiarism checkers.
Furthermore, companies are already dabbling in using AI for education. Services like Caktus and Google Socratic AI focus on helping students solve their homework with the help of handy artificial intelligence. With time, we expect even more to pop up and challenge the jobs of teachers through bots like ChatGPT.
9. Graphic Designers
Website designers aren’t the only ones in fear of ChatGPT taking their jobs. Like the former, graphic designers are in charge of coming up with beautiful visuals, which again requires a lot of creativity and effort. However, the market is now rife with some of the best AI image generators that are making things much harder.
From just a few carefully constructed image prompts, a normal user can now output a chock-full of very beautiful and quite usable series of images. Since they are generated by AI, these graphic designs can easily be used for almost all kinds of purposes. While seeking out graphic designers and artists was a practice, it seems to be slowly going out of commission because of tons of free AI.
In fact, we have already seen companies using AI-generated images in their landing pages and general use. Naturally, this harms the designer job sector. While one can employ the help of AI to make their own art better, many complain that the generated art itself is in a way stolen. As AI itself generates from a sample dataset, the argument of “copied inspiration” isn’t exactly wrong and one that should be talked about.
10. Customer Service Agents
Even if telephonic support is infamous for bothering users, customer service agents help a large chunk of people out by answering a wide variety of queries. This applies to different companies, including some of the most prevalent being banks and other financial institutions. However, the coming of AI and ChatGPT has also signaled a shift of focus from human agents to AI bots.
This change is present both on phones and in the online sphere. Going through a banking website, you might have chanced upon an AI chatbot that takes user queries and answers back. That’s one of the prime examples of AI, replacing customer service agents. While one could previously phone agents for answers, now you can just ask questions and get instant answers.
A good and quite old example of AI replacing customer service is HDFC’s Eva, an AI-based virtual assistant. Capable of answering a wide variety of questions, Eva can easily hold multiple conversations with people without spazzing out. The bot answers not only the most asked questions but can contextually retrieve information for custom queries. In the same way, there are numerous automated telephonic service agents that can recognize speech and give an answer. One of the many examples of AI in customer service, this type of AI can be a good competitor to jobs.
11. Cashiers
The jobs of cashiers have always been a hit-and-miss when it comes to AI taking over. One of the most basic yet difficult jobs, cashiers are naturally instrumental in billing and part inventory management. However, as automated computing rises, this job field is also under fire. Combined with a set of different technologies, cashers have their own stream of competition in the form of machines and AI.
While not very recent, self-checkout machines are platforms that have been coming up worldwide. The concept is based on the fact that the customer scans their own items, pays for them, and simply walks out of the store with ease. You will find these self-checkout systems in large grocery chains or in places where there is too much footfall.
Another example of cashiers facing competition is order kiosks in some restaurants and store chains. Based on the same principle, these kiosks can take your order and payment. The user then simply needs to walk over to the counter to collect their food and finish the process. Scaled throughout correctly, systems like these could very well be a cashier’s replacement.
12. Proofreaders
While you might think proofreading is a basic job, it requires a good chunk of time. Proofreading articles or text of any kind is not solely about going through spelling errors but also requires bouts of fact-checking. As one can imagine, it’s a hard job. However, ChatGPT has made it incredibly easy for proofreaders to not just seek help but shift the entire work to AI for their jobs.
Almost every AI chatbot can now read, proofread, and edit all kinds of content online. You not only provide it the text without content and it will correct that too. One can even give ChatGPT writing style samples from writers, and it will proofread the text based on that.
One of the earliest examples of AI making its way into proofreading is Grammarly. For those unaware, this AI-powered typing assistant can comb through vast amounts of text and correct it. Grammarly can easily proofread and even suggest improvements to the writing using its contextual data. In the same way, ChatGPT and other AI services are popping up that not only correct but also substantially improve the text.
13. Social Media Manager
Like YouTube, a company needs well-trained and capable people to manage its relations with the public. However, no company directly interacts with the user. Social media managers bridge this gap by mapping out and executing a thought-out plan for a company’s social media interactions and content. However, this specific job is also slowly being covered by ChatGPT and its uses.
However, with the level of creativity and organization ChatGPT and other AI bring to the table, social media manager jobs are also being supplemented. For starters, ChatGPT is more than capable of coming up with full-fledged social media plans. These can easily be catered according to specific requirements. In fact, the AI can do something as simple as drafting attractive Instagram and YouTube captions to writing scripts.
Even though some companies have started to employ AI’s help for social media, there’s something to be said for humans. Humans bring their own level of emotional intelligence and intensely customized social media plans that AI might not be capable of. This particular need for human touch means bots like ChatGPT might help social media professionals but not replace their jobs entirely. You can even use AI tools like ChatGPT in WhatsApp to compose messages for you.
14. Recruiters and HR Team
Even though ChatGPT and AI might help a recruiter’s job, they won’t necessarily take it. If you’ve gone through our best ChatGPT prompts list, you must have seen our prompts on making the bot an interviewer. When programmed correctly, ChatGPT can assume the role of a job interviewer, complete with questions it has to ask.
However, the bot when left by itself might ask confusing questions and as such needs background information. Furthermore, a recruiter’s role is more than just interviews and transcends to hunting down potential candidates and chasing after them for closure. A process like that requires the human EQ mentioned above and is not something AI has.
Therefore, even if ChatGPT can pose as an excellent interviewer, it’s not necessarily the best virtual person for the job when it comes to replacing recruiters.
15. Clinical Data Manager
While a bit niche, clinical data managers are the people responsible for properly collecting and analyzing data during clinical trials. This data is the driving force behind coming up with inferences after said trials. However, besides that however, a CDM also prepares a wide variety of documents integral to the field.
As users might have guessed, ChatGPT and similar AI possess if not the best then sharp analytical reasoning skills. As such the bots can easily handle large amounts of data. Putting besides the fact this data might be confidential, it can be made into full-scale databases ready for use by medical companies.
However, diving into medical ethics and feeding data to artificial intelligence is another conversation altogether. For now, it’s best to wait and see if AI takes over CDM jobs.
What Jobs ChatGPT Thinks It Will Replace
Since we are ultimately talking about artificial intelligence, it’s only fair that we also ask ChatGPT for its two cents on what all jobs it thinks it will make redundant. To weigh in on what the chatbot says, we asked it for a list of 20 jobs that it thinks it can replace. We also asked for a short reason for each to get a better idea. Here’s what ChatGPT thinks about it taking up jobs.
As we guessed, ChatGPT thought of some of the same jobs we did. Let’s just hope its predictions don’t come to life anytime soon. What do you think about this list? Think these jobs will be replaced by AI sooner rather than later?
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Job Impact Research & Analysis
While this is all mere speculation, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, itself recently conducted research on replacing jobs. Titled “GPTs are GPTs: An early look at the labor market impact potential of large language models“, the paper examines the level of exposure each job and its responsibilities have when AI is used in conjunction.
To achieve reliable results, OpenAI created a new rubric (a statement of purpose) that accurately maps this out. A plethora of jobs and their daily work responsibilities were collected and the data was cross-fed to human and AI subjects.
Without making it overly complex, the results were very interesting. As per the calculated data, it is estimated that 80% of the US workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by GPTs. Furthermore, 19% of workers may have 50% of their tasks impacted. Jobs with the most exposure include ones like mathematicians, news analysts, reporters, journalists, tax preparers, writers & authors, climate change policy analysts, and many more. Combined with the suspected jobs above, AI and ChatGPT could signal an important turn in the human job market.
ChatGPT Takes Away Jobs: Is Now the Time to Panic?
Even though you might be ready to sound the alarm, I advise waiting a bit. While AI and its byproducts like ChatGPT may seem threatening to human jobs, the impact is not as widespread as hysteria might claim. In fact, the use of AI in the professional market is nothing new and has been done by companies for a few years now. AI bots like ChatGPT have brought this field to the limelight by displaying its wide variety of applications.
As a working professional directly affected by the widespread use of AI, I find myself in a rather difficult situation. While, on one hand, I do appreciate the momentous progress the field is making, the irony of writing on something that might replace me is not lost on me. For now, many journalists (including me) use bots like ChatGPT as a means to an end. It’s an amazing tool for getting that spark of inspiration, for tidying up content, and for instilling new possibilities. However, the time of ChatGPT fully replacing my job and jobs in this field is not here just yet. Until that time comes, we can relish writing and reading words that are actually human.
