AI Replaces Even More Jobs: AI for Work April 2024

Last week, I hosted three live sessions for over 200 executives looking to understand and apply AI better.

These sessions, a warm-up for the full Lead with AI course kicking off on May 13, ended with a simple question: how do you feel about AI now?

The most common response was “Empowered.”

Is that surprising, considering that this was a mostly C-level audience? Not to me. The first cohort of the course said just that.

As leaders, we’ve started feeling stuck, always relying on others to get work done. 

Whether it’s an internal memo that needs to be copyrighted or a strategic document that needs to be reviewed. 

AI allows us to take back control and become a one-person powerhouse. It increases our productivity. It frees up time for what matters. And it does so by replacing people you previously relied on.

This, of course, also begs the question: which roles will AI replace in my organization?

Jobs AI will Replace

It’s almost a year since I wrote an article on this topic. In it, I highlighted that research shows up to two-thirds of jobs could be affected by AI.

As I noted, roles such as coders, customer service representatives, designers, writers, and legal assistants would be particularly vulnerable due to AI's ability to automate tasks like coding, customer support, design, writing, and routine legal work. 

AI’s capabilities have grown significantly one year later, and more jobs are seemingly at risk. A recent webinar from AI thinker Dave Shapiro points out a few roles in particular:

• Call Centers: AI advancements are replacing human agents with automated systems and chatbots, making some call center jobs obsolete. (This should be no surprise to anyone who followed the news of Klarna replacing up to 700 people with AI.)
• Translators: The efficiency and lower cost of AI-driven translation tools are decreasing the demand for human translators.
• Copywriters and SEO Specialists: AI tools are increasingly handling copywriting and search engine optimization (SEO) tasks, reducing opportunities for professionals in these fields.
• Creative Jobs: Developments in AI, such as generative tools, are impacting creative roles across various mediums, affecting job security for those in creative professions.

Our latest data supports these insights. 

In the AI Top 100 for Work – April, various writing and image creation tools have grown significantly in the past month:

Writing:

• Quillbot: +11% (#4 overall AI for Work tool)
• Grammarly AI: +5% (#12)
• NovelAI: +20% (#31)
• Writesonic: +5% (#53)
• Wordtune: +13% (#62)

Image Creation:

• Canva AI: +8% (#3) 
• Midjourney: +6% (#11)
• Cutout.pro: +11% (#17)
• PIXLR: +8% (#18)
• Adobe Firefly: +16% (#21)

This is above and beyond the quick rise of all general LLM tools, including ChatGPT (+9%), Google Gemini (+37%), Claude (a stunning +161%), Microsoft Copilot (+48%), and Mistral Le Chat (+518%.)

Other fast risers showcase more reasons why fewer people can do more without relying on others:

• Research tool Perplexity AI, which marries ChatGPT-like answers with the links we’ve come to expect from Google, grew by 24% in the past month. Competitor You.com grew by 14%.
• Audio generator Suno lets people generate their own music, no longer relying on stock music (or even the radio). Its monthly visitors grew 170%, from 8 to 22 million. (new competitor Udio isn’t tracking yet.)
• “PowerPoint killer” Gamma AI fast-tracks creating presentations from a simple prompt and has seen 13% growth since February. Competitor Tome grew by 15% but still logs ‘only’ 3.6 vs. Gamma’s 11.3 million monthly visitors. 
• Coding platform Blackbox became the #20 AI for Work platform with 9.4 million visitors with 17% growth. Phind grew 32% to 8.2 million visitors, and Replicate is now at 6 million visitors after growing 34% month over month. 
• Meeting assistant Notta booked a 15% growth to 4 million monthly visitors, only behind Otter AI, which had 5.3 million visitors. 

In short, the continuously rising popularity of tools that enable us to do more means fewer people are needed, and entire roles, like copywriters and translators, are being completely eradicated. 

This doesn’t just impact us personally, it also means companies must rethink their workforce planning.

As Suzy Chief People Officer Anthony Onesto told me previously:

“This is the new normal. Markets reacting to cuts (ala Meta), revenue growth inspite of those cuts, now layer on AI and automation. I think the story is that we are now in perpetual reductions in force that historically would impact revenue growth, but that is being supercharged by AI. So investors, boards and CEOs are waking up to the reality that they can cut labor and grow. The holy grail of business.” – Anthony Onesto, Chief People Officer, Suzy

In our recent interview, Anthony added how a data-driven approach to managing an AI-powered team is the only way to succeed in the future of work: 

We’re already seeing HR software, from large ERP platforms like Workday to new upstarts like GoFIGR, making moves towards considering how AI will change which people we will need and how many of them we will need.

What Should We Do, Then?

With a three-day workweek or even complete post-labor economics foreseeable in our lifetimes, more people will question what we can still do if AI takes over.

As I mentioned in a recent Asana Work Innovators Live webinar, the more people wake up to the extent to which AI can take over, the more they will search for meaning.

What do we want to do, who do we want to be, if we don’t have to invest 40 – 60 hours per week into our jobs anymore?

Besides this, certain jobs will likely persist even if we reach AGI. Dave outlines a number of them:

• Statutory Jobs: Certain jobs, such as doctors, lawyers, and architects, remain protected due to legal requirements specifying that humans fill these roles.
• Meaning Economy Jobs: Jobs involving personal interaction or philosophical, spiritual, and cultural communication, like influencers and religious leaders, remain in demand as humans prefer human connection in these areas.
• Experience Economy Jobs: Jobs involving personal experiences, such as massage therapists, entertainers, and tourism professionals, are less likely to be replaced by AI because of the premium on human interaction.
• Nurture Jobs: Roles in education, childcare, and counseling are safeguarded to some extent due to the human touch they require, which is difficult to replicate with AI.
• High-Risk Jobs: Jobs that involve repetitive tasks or are exclusively conducted on computers, like programming and data entry, face high risks of automation.

Much of this concerns places where the ‘human touch’ is valuable, regardless of whether AI can do it better or cheaper. 

AI and Work: The Bottom Line

AI can already take over tasks and roles. 

And, the technology will only increase to be competitive with much of the very predictable, structured, and repetitive work we humans currently do.

How will you plan for the workforce of the future.

And what will your own role look like?

– Daan