The future of work is uncertain, but experts say it’s too early to predict significant job displacement due to AI. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, believes nearly half of entry-level white-collar jobs in tech, finance, law, and consulting could be replaced or eliminated by AI.
However, Christopher Stanton, Marvin Bower Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, cautions that the impact of AI on the workforce will depend on how tasks are divided between humans and machines. “The optimistic case is that if you think a machine can do some tasks but not all, those tasks the machine can automate or do will free up people to concentrate on different aspects of a job,” Stanton explains.
Several signs suggest AI’s transformative impact on the labor market: (1) Computer-science graduates and STEM graduates are having trouble finding jobs; (2) AI is being used for coding in early-stage startups; and (3) model providers have built tools to deploy code, making it easier for people without domain expertise to build things.
Stanton emphasizes that it’s too early to predict significant job displacement, but he suggests policymakers should focus on subsidies or tax policy to support workers. “Anything that you would do to prop up employment, you’ll see a competitor who is more nimble and with a lower cost who doesn’t have that same legacy labor stack probably out-compete people dynamically,” he notes.
Experts agree that policymakers will need safety-net policies and retraining programs to address the impact of AI on the workforce. While it’s uncertain how AI will affect specific industries, one thing is clear: the future of work will be shaped by this rapidly evolving technology.
Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/07/will-your-job-survive-ai