Artificial intelligence is eliminating certain jobs, but the impact varies depending on a worker’s experience and expertise. Researchers at Stanford University analyzed payroll data from late 2022 to mid-2025 and found that younger workers are being replaced by AI in sectors vulnerable to automation, such as customer service and software development.
However, more experienced employees are seeing new opportunities emerge. The study reveals that AI’s impact has more to do with a worker’s experience and expertise than the type of work they do. Experienced employees in these industries are insulated from job displacement, with opportunities either remaining flat or slightly growing.
The researchers also found that AI is not lowering wages, at least so far. Instead, it’s creating demand for augmentative work, where humans and machines collaborate to achieve better results. This could lead to a new feature of the future labor market, where more collaboration between humans and AI becomes essential.
Economists like Erik Brynjolfsson emphasize the need to maximize the benefits of AI across the economy. They suggest that governments can change tax systems to reward companies that prioritize human-machine collaboration, while also developing new benchmarks for “centaur” AI that measure human-AI collaboration.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/stanford-research-ai-replace-jobs-young-workers