Why are some people here downplaying AI's potential impact on job market?

[Anonymous]

IDK. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. While AI can help a worker be efficient, I don't think we are at the point yet where it can replace the worker entirely, except for some basic entry level work.

But, like I said, if AI replaces entry level workers, who will replace midlevel workers once the older workers retire?

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5462609/grok-elon-musk-antisemitic-racist-content

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in IT at a well-known law firm, and the law firm is going into AI 100%. It launched a Proof of Concept last year using AI to reduce the number of junior lawyers in the firm. The POC went so well that the firm recently laid off over 50% of the junior lawyers on staff. The speed of AI in the next two years will be much more damaging than people think. All of us should be worried.

So there won't be enough mid or senior level lawyers to fix things when it really messes up right?

This can't be true. The legal news would be exploding. Remember "lathaming"?

Why people lie is beyond me. It's either not true or it's a no name firm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IDK. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. While AI can help a worker be efficient, I don't think we are at the point yet where it can replace the worker entirely, except for some basic entry level work.

But, like I said, if AI replaces entry level workers, who will replace midlevel workers once the older workers retire?

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5462609/grok-elon-musk-antisemitic-racist-content

In my industry, I think entry-level people should be treated like medical residents and be paid a small salary to learn the trade. You can't justify large salaries anymore for them to do things that AI can do better and faster. You need a senior person to do the prompts and editing, because they know what they are doing. They don't offer much value until an entry-level person knows what they are doing. AI can do the grunt work of 4 entry-level people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Microsoft and Indeed just laid off 1000s of people this week blaming AI...and people are still saying don't worry about AI. Um, ok.

And 1000s of farm and field workers have been rounded up at detention centers or deported.

Nobody likes it, but we aren't running around screaming and bleeding from our eyeballs. Guess what? We don't work for Microsoft or Indeed in those jobs.

So again, as has been asked MANY times in this thread -- what level of reaction would be satisfying to you, and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are some people here downplaying AI' potential impact on the job market.

They are scared and don't want to admit how AI could be game changing in the workforce, especially if ones job simply entails tapping away at a computer.

[Anonymous]

OP, has dishwasher completely relieved you from doing dishes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Microsoft and Indeed just laid off 1000s of people this week blaming AI...and people are still saying don't worry about AI. Um, ok.

And 1000s of farm and field workers have been rounded up at detention centers or deported.

Nobody likes it, but we aren't running around screaming and bleeding from our eyeballs. Guess what? We don't work for Microsoft or Indeed in those jobs.

So again, as has been asked MANY times in this thread -- what level of reaction would be satisfying to you, and why?

It’s also incredibly dubious that AI is the reason. Tech has been shedding jobs for, what, 18 months now? Sounds a lot better to say AI is the cause than “our projections were off and we need to cut costs.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Microsoft and Indeed just laid off 1000s of people this week blaming AI...and people are still saying don't worry about AI. Um, ok.

You need to go read the actual articles about Microsoft. They plan to hire salespeople while cutting customer service. Based on decades of using Microsoft tools, that sounds typical, lol. There are other articles that explain that Microsoft will be hiring more too. I bet that the salespeople are going to be pushing AI. I already went to a Microsoft AI workshop for corporate clients.

https://tech.co/news/salesforce-reducing-hiring-due-to-ai

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Microsoft and Indeed just laid off 1000s of people this week blaming AI...and people are still saying don't worry about AI. Um, ok.

It’s a smoke screen for offshoring.

+1, the fact the company said "because AI" does not mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Microsoft and Indeed just laid off 1000s of people this week blaming AI...and people are still saying don't worry about AI. Um, ok.

These companies have an incentive to cite AI as a reason for reducing headcount. The reality is they over hired and are facing tougher economic conditions. If AI were truly making MS more productive, then they would presumably want to hire more to build more products and refine the ones that already exist to reduce support costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't matter whether AI will replace workers or not. Capital owners are not the red cross. If one day AI is able to replace workers you damn right they will adopt it. They do not care about you and your family. They care about their own bottom line. It's as simple as that.

Bingo. My very first out of college, I worked for a junior developer at one of the well known large bank. One of the Director (not my boss, but my boss reports to him), told me that they hired me so I could automate some of their processes so they can cut the team in half. And this exchange what happened. We hired a consultant which whom I worked. 18 months later the team was cut in 1/2 permanently.

This trend of doing more with less people is not going to slow down and this what people should worry about not AI directly.

[Anonymous]

When you have a job and feel secured, you will naturally downplay any threat to your job. That's just human nature. People undesttandlly downplay AI because it also forces them to evaluate their own relevance. I won't lie, 100% of what I do can be automated and has been automated at other companies. My company is just slow to react. Other people feel that their job cannot be 100% automated. If true good for them. Those people should not fear AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't matter whether AI will replace workers or not. Capital owners are not the red cross. If one day AI is able to replace workers you damn right they will adopt it. They do not care about you and your family. They care about their own bottom line. It's as simple as that.

Bingo. My very first out of college, I worked for a junior developer at one of the well known large bank. One of the Director (not my boss, but my boss reports to him), told me that they hired me so I could automate some of their processes so they can cut the team in half. And this exchange what happened. We hired a consultant which whom I worked. 18 months later the team was cut in 1/2 permanently.

This trend of doing more with less people is not going to slow down and this what people should worry about not AI directly.

I graduated in a recession where entry-level jobs were scarce. Companies have been doing layoff waves for efficiency the whole time I've been in the job market. Nothing new. Younger professionals are often used to cut labor costs.

[Anonymous]

I think it's because they can't connect the dots between the AI they see and it doing their job. The roadmap is pretty obvious to anyone paying attention to Salesforce, UIPath, PowerAutomate, and many others. It's cluelessness and a lack of imagination.

[Anonymous]

How many threads do we need on this? Wish we could consolidate all ‘AI’ posts to a single thread.