The swift rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping labor markets, triggering both job displacement and the potential for new employment opportunities, analysts told ABC News.
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in various industries has led to fears about the future of jobs, with some predicting a significant workforce upheaval. However, experts suggest that while AI may displace certain positions, it could also create new job opportunities, enabling workers to oversee and integrate AI tools or focus on creative and complex tasks that computers cannot manage alone.
Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, argued that AI is not entirely beyond human control. “There are places where we do have control,” Holzer said regarding the potential changes incoming in the workforce due to AI.
Forecasts on the extent of job disruption caused by AI vary widely. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, warned in May that AI could potentially reduce U.S. entry-level jobs by half over the next five years. Conversely, the World Economic Forum conducted a survey of 1,000 large global companies, identifying AI as the primary driver of job creation by 2030. The survey estimated that AI could create 170 million jobs worldwide over five years, a number that significantly surpasses the 92 million jobs projected to be lost.
Historically, advances in technology have typically resulted in net job gains, a point observed by Ethan Mollick, a business professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, he noted that AI stands out as a unique technological challenge. “Every time that happens, we worry, ‘It will be different this time around.’ It may be different this time around – AI is a very different technology,” Mollick said, emphasizing the uncertainty surrounding AI’s impact on job markets.
In anticipation of AI’s growing influence, new AI-centered roles are already emerging across various sectors. According to Chris Martin, lead researcher at Glassdoor, the share of job listings focused on AI roles more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, with a subsequent 56% increase in 2025 compared to the previous year. These AI roles are divided into two broad categories: existing positions that have evolved to include AI tools and entirely new roles specifically created for AI-related tasks.
A large number of current AI roles involve adapting existing positions, like software engineers or attorneys, to focus on AI specialization. However, AI-centered jobs, such as those involved in AI training, are growing rapidly and predominantly operate on a freelance basis. Glassdoor data shows that AI training roles quadrupled in 2024 and continue to expand this year.
Some AI-specific positions have seen a decline. For example, the demand for “prompt engineers”—individuals who craft queries to produce effective AI responses—has diminished, as noted by Martin.
Looking ahead, there is little clarity about what new roles AI might bring about in the coming years. Some analysts suggest that AI could generate jobs focused on assessing AI outputs’ quality and authenticity. Others believe that AI could render such roles obsolete if it reaches a level of proficiency that eliminates the need for human oversight.
Experts like Mollick caution that the ultimate impact of AI on the labor market depends significantly on the technological evolution of AI systems. “The question in some ways is: What happens next with these systems,” Mollick noted.
Dave Autor, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in technological change and the labor force, highlighted the challenges in predicting newly created jobs in an AI-transformed economy. “We’re not good at predicting what the new work will be; we’re good at predicting how current work will change,” Autor stated.
The ongoing evolution of AI calls for caution among workers as they consider adapting to the future labor landscape, Mollick advised, warning against making significant career decisions based solely on current AI developments. “The worst thing you could do right now is make a complex career decision based on what AI is doing today, because we just don’t know,” he said.
The prospects of AI-driven career opportunities remain filled with uncertainty, leaving analysts and workers alike contemplating how best to position themselves for what lies ahead in the AI-revolutionized labor market.