Will AI Steal Our Jobs?

Understanding the “Disappearance” and “Transformation” of Jobs Through Structural Analysis

The phrase “AI will steal our jobs” has been repeated alongside the spread of Generative AI. However, answering this question with a simple “YES” or “NO” actually misses the essence of the issue.

What is important is to structurally understand how work itself is changing—which parts will be replaced by AI and which parts will remain for humans. This article analyzes the changes occurring in the AI era by focusing on the elements that constitute work, rather than simply listing job titles.

Why the Expression “Jobs Will Be Stolen” Is Misleading

A job is not made of a single task. Most jobs are a collection of multiple processes:

1. Collecting information
2. Organizing and processing it
3. Comparing and analyzing
4. Making judgments
5. Explaining and sharing
6. Taking responsibility

AI has become capable of processing some of these steps with high speed and stability. In other words, what is being “taken” is not the “profession” itself, but “specific processes” within the work.

Common Traits of Work Easily Replaced by AI

There are clear commonalities in tasks that are easily replaced by AI:

1. Rule-based and Pattern-based: Tasks with clear criteria and few exceptions.
2. Fixed Inputs and Outputs: Routine processes like “processing this data in this specific way.”
3. Measurable Outcomes: Work where quality or correctness can be judged quantitatively. These are characteristics seen at the task level, not the job level.

What are the “Decreasing Jobs”?

The tasks that will decrease through AI integration are:

• Manual data aggregation
• Creation of simple documents
• Drafting routine explanatory texts
• Initial-level inquiry responses These are not so much “becoming unnecessary” as they are “tasks that humans no longer need to do.” As a result, the human role shifts to other areas.

What are the “Transforming Jobs”?

Most jobs will not disappear; they will change shape. For example:

• Administrative Roles: Shifting to reading data and thinking of improvements.
• Sales Roles: Shifting from information gathering to the quality of proposals.
• Management Roles: Shifting from report creation to decision-making and coordination. The characteristic shift is the movement of the center of gravity from “Execution” to “Judgment, Design, and Coordination.”

The Essence of Work That Remains in the AI Era

Even as AI evolves, work that remains for humans has clear characteristics:

1. Defining Premises and Objectives: The role of deciding “what to aim for” and “what is the right answer.”
2. Reading Context: Elements difficult to quantify, such as organizational culture, emotions, and stakeholder interests.
3. Taking Responsibility: The need for a human to undertake the final judgment and accountability.

Why AI Cannot Fully Substitute “Judgment”

AI produces the most probable answer based on past data. However, business decisions are always made amid incomplete information, changing environments, and conflicts of interest. In these situations, “persuasiveness and explainability” are required more than mere “correctness.” This is where the human role remains.

The Mindset of “People Whose Jobs Won’t Be Stolen”

Those who are strong in the AI era do not think, “Will my job be stolen?” but rather, “Which processes of my work can I entrust to AI?”

• Hand over the execution to AI.
• Concentrate on judgment.
• Move the source of value “upstream.” This perspective increases career sustainability.

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Service Introduction: Adapting to Structural Changes in Work

We have developed a service that makes the structure of “AI handles execution, humans handle judgment” easy to implement in daily operations.

By linking Excel and ChatGPT, we expand the scope of automation—previously dependent on manual labor or Macros/VBA—to include statistical processing, analysis, summarization, and visualization.

AI supports routine aggregation, explanation, and report creation, creating an environment where humans can focus on judgment, improvement, and decision-making. This is an option to turn the changes of the AI era from a “threat” into a “weapon.”