AI jobs are already reshaping the labor market—not in some distant future, but right now. Recent decisions by executives at Shopify and Duolingo underscore a growing trend that companies are actively choosing artificial intelligence over human workers. This is especially true for jobs that can be automated or augmented by AI.

“Before asking for more headcount, you have to prove that AI can’t do the job as well as a human,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke told managers earlier this year.

These shifts are supported by new analysis from Revelio Labs, a workforce analytics firm that tracks labor market trends using massive data sets pulled from job listings, resumes, and employment records across the internet.

Revelio Labs: Tracking Workforce Trends in the Age of AI

Revelio Labs has become a go-to source for understanding how AI is impacting the workforce. Economist Zanele Munyikwa, one of the firm’s leading researchers, recently conducted an in-depth study analyzing how AI-doable tasks have changed in job descriptions over the past three years.

Her research found a 19% decline in AI-doable tasks in online job postings. But this isn’t because employers want less automation—quite the opposite. The drop, Munyikwa explains, occurred because companies are posting fewer jobs that AI can do.

“We clearly see that the intense rise of AI has already had significant impacts on job listings,” Munyikwa explained. “High-exposure roles are disappearing faster than others.”

Explore more from Revelio Labs: www.reveliolabs.com

Which Jobs Are Most at Risk?

Revelio’s data sorted job types into three groups: high, medium, and low exposure to AI, based on how many of the role's responsibilities can be performed or assisted by AI. Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched in 2022, jobs in high-exposure categories have seen a 31% drop in postings, while low-exposure roles dropped by just 25%.

Most AI-Exposed Jobs

• Database Administrator – 69.0% of tasks AI-doable
• IT Specialist – 62.4%
• Information Security Analyst – 61.8%
• Auditor – 60.7%
• Data Engineer – 59.4%

Least AI-Exposed Jobs

• Restaurant Manager – 15.6%
• Crew Member (Retail/Food Service) – 17.1%
• Foreman – 18.9%
• Corporate Trainer – 19.5%
• Mechanic – 20.1%

Jobs requiring physical presence, hands-on skills, or interpersonal communication remain far more insulated from AI.

Freelancers and White-Collar Workers Fear Emerging AI Jobs 

Academics from NYU and Washington University observed similar shifts. Their 2023 study focused on freelancers in writing-related jobs. After ChatGPT’s rise, job postings for these roles on Upwork declined by 2%, and monthly earnings dropped 5.2%. The conclusion:

“In the short term, generative AI reduces overall demand for knowledge workers of all types,” the researchers wrote.

This trend is contributing to what some analysts are calling a “white-collar recession”, where professional and creative roles are stagnating even as productivity increases. Read more on Business Insider

https://usaherald.com/solar-storms-force-starlink-satellites-to-fall-faster-than-expected-per-nasa-study/

Are Companies Making a Risky Bet on AI?

Despite the rapid shift, Munyikwa cautions against assuming AI can always substitute for human workers. While it’s clear that employers believe in AI’s capabilities, the long-term effects on quality, creativity, and profitability remain unknown.

“It’s unclear if AI in its current iteration is capable of doing all the white-collar work that employers think it can,” she said. “It could be that hiring fewer people for AI-exposed roles was a bad move.”

Whether this hiring freeze is a short-term strategy or a lasting transformation depends on AI’s continued evolution and how businesses balance innovation with human creativity.