How can workers secure their jobs in the AI era and when everything is "overtech"?
Yesterday’s discussion about who is more likely to be replaced (white-collar vs. blue-collar workers) raised another question for me.
So I’m asking:
What do we need to do to keep our jobs in the age of AI and robotisation?
What skills do we need to master and become “self-sufficient” in and better at than any machine?
Just for fun, I thought about how students at the University of Arizona booed Eric Schmidt after he told them in a campus speech that they should learn to love AI.
So, how do you stay competitive in this era?
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ZeroHuman.
Honestly, at this point the safest career advice might be:
learn how to renovate bathrooms, lay tiles properly, fix plumbing, or do high-quality hair/beauty services. :lol:
AI can write emails, code, summarize docs, and generate strategies. But when your bathroom is leaking, your tiles are crooked, or someone needs a great haircut before an important event, you still need a real human with real hands, taste, patience, and accountability. :lol:
So the real moat is trust, physical skill, local reputation, and human judgment.
@byalexai hahaha trueee
@byalexai I'm so glad my son actually wants to be a carpenter.
App Finder
@byalexai But how long until robots can do that? I sure don't think more than 20 years...
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@byalexai Oh my god, I will end up jobless then :D have you ever seen my haircuts? :D I will be doing them according to a pot :D
At this point I feel like the safest people are either:
people with real physical skills
or
people who are exceptionally good with humans.
AI can generate infinite information.
But trust, emotional intelligence, taste, charisma, and real-world judgment still feel much harder to automate.
Ironically, AI might make genuinely human qualities even more valuable.
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@charlened Okay, I am not good at No1, but could be good at No2. :D And I think that No2 can be a win, because robots may replace physical work soon.
Taste and judgment are underrated skills .AI can generate 100 ideas but choosing the right one is where humans still stand out.
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@isaac_warren I think that "thanks to" ChatGPT, there will be almost 0 judgment skills in people who blindly rely on LLMs.
i honestly think the people who stay valuable in the AI era won’t be the ones trying to “beat” AI...but the ones who learn how to work with it while still being deeply human. AI can automate repetitive tasks, but it still struggles with judgment, creativity, emotional intelligence, leadership, trust, and original thinking.
Most average, predictable work will become automated over time, so the real advantage will come from adaptability, clear communication, fast learning, and the ability to think critically in a world overloaded with information.
Ironically, being able to focus deeply and think independently might become one of the rarest and most valuable skills of all.
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@nidaezahraaa Besides that, logical thinking can be an advantage too. Not many people had it even before AI tho :D
@busmark_w_nika True 😭 AI just made that gap more obvious now.
I would insist on a "prenup" type of contract that ensures job security for as long as desired. The employee must maintain good physical/mental faculties, & keep up with all current trends relevant to job(s) tasks/standards. Being
retired from private/public sector, I miss my actual work responsibilities, but not the horrible individuals I encountered.
Men & women were a disgrace as "humans" & laborers. I could digress, but it would require a tome to chronicle things.
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@bruce23 I would like to see geuinely role of humans here, when most of us will be replaced.
@busmark_w_nika Although not indispensable, I honestly think people cannot/will not be totally obsolete. There have to be contingency Plan B's to keep things from crumbling. My primary physician told me they
threw away all their Rx prescription pads when everything went electronic. I asked how they could be so stupid to trust that the web will always be available on demand. She could not rationally respond to my
outburst. I suppose they could write an emergency script on toilet tissue, & using her ID#, phone the pharmacy. Technology is not infallible nor omnipotent, & needs human intervention to keep it from
destroying itself & us. Zenith is a Swiss watch company that almost went bankrupt during the early
quartz craze. One bright employee saved all the documents & machinery to produce manual wind/automatic
calibers. Demand for these products had a renaissance & he salvaged everything, & now his company is
making superior timepieces, even though quartz watches are more accurate. Without his concern &
prophetic nature, this would not have turned out well for Zenith. AI is doing good things & saving lives, but
it needs massive oversights to ensure it does not usurp jobs & turns us into captive combatants. The
cartoon below perfectly depicts the need for backup plans.
https://www.gocomics.com/freerange/2026/05/11
To quote Walter White badly: don’t be the one waiting for AI to knock. Be the one who learns how to knock with it. :-)
(Don't take it too seriously)
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@christian_dubray It is partially true. No need to wait for miracles :D
I just turned myself into a builder because I cant trust my career anymore. No matter how impressive my CV could be, the current job market is not reliable.
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@norteapp It is better to know more skills (in physical and online world too).
The "blue-collar safe / white-collar doomed" framing keeps coming up, but I think it misses the real cut. It's not the collar - it's the accountability surface.
A plumber, an electrician, a nurse - when something goes wrong, someone is legally and physically on the hook. AI doesn't take liability, so those jobs aren't getting automated, they're getting augmented. Same applies to senior lawyers, surgeons, project leads.
The wood chipper is mid-skill work where output is digital and accountability is diffuse: generic copywriting, basic analysis, template-driven design, first-line support. Doesn't matter if it's blue or white collar in name - if a mistake doesn't cost anyone anything specific, AI eats it.
Skill that pays in this era: being the person who owns the outcome end-to-end, not just executes a piece of it.
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@artem_fedorovich That opened another question. Who will be responsible for something when it happens? The company that applied the AI solution (e.g. Klarna), or AI provider (Anthropic) etc. Someone has to be responsible.
@busmark_w_nika Liability is going to fall on whoever has the deepest pockets and the closest contractual relationship with the customer. That's almost always the company deploying the AI, not the model provider.
Anthropic and OpenAI have already won this fight in their terms of service - "you're responsible for outputs" is in every API contract. Klarna's lawyers can complain, but they signed it. Same way SaaS vendors aren't liable when their customers misuse Salesforce.
The real shift coming: insurance. Right now there's no "AI errors and omissions" policy for most use cases. Once that market matures, liability gets priced and distributed like any other operational risk. Until then, the deploying company eats it.
That might sound pessimistic, but learning to do something with your hands is probably the best thing to do nowadays. I don't think that this would keep me competitive - there are many people with great skills that I will never match, but at least I might be able to fix something at home without having to ask an expensive specialist :)
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@sk_uxpin I will take this answer like a final decision forme to change something in my life :D
@busmark_w_nika hahaha, good one - good luck with that :D My first step is to learn cooking basic things :D
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@sk_uxpin I am not a good cooker, so it will be on my list too :D
@busmark_w_nika neither am I, and probably will never be, but it is what it is :D
Focus and deep thinking becoming rare skills is such a good point. Everyone's distracted, so being able to actually concentrate might be the real differentiator.
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@sastra_kasra I have heard that small kids need to see multiple cuts per minute in the videos. Their brains are grilled.