Matthew Ramirez began studying computer science at Western Governors University in 2025 with the promise of a well-paid and flexible career as a programmer. But as headlines about tech layoffs and AI’s potential to replace entry-level programmers grew louder, he began to question whether that path would actually lead to jobs.
The 20-year-old’s suspicions deepened in June of that year when he received no response from an interview for a data center engineer position. In December, Ramirez decided to leave computer science altogether, thinking it was a safer bet. He dropped his planned major and applied to nursing school instead. He comes from a family of nurses and considers this field to be more stable and difficult to automate than coding.
“We may not be at the point now where AI will overtake all of these entry-level jobs, but it probably will be by the time I graduate,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez is not alone in reshaping his career due to concerns about AI. While students like him are rethinking their majors over concerns that AI will destroy their employment prospects, more established workers, some with decades of experience, are rethinking their trajectories as they encounter AI in the workplace and share the same fears. Some workers avoid it altogether. Others accept it.
It is unclear when AI will become sophisticated enough to replace certain white-collar workers, and how many jobs it will be able to take over. But fears over its potential impact are already forcing people to change course and reshape labor markets before automation fully arrives.
What is clear is why workers are feeling threatened. The World Economic Forum predicts that 92 million roles worldwide could be replaced by AI by 2030, including many white-collar jobs. In the U.S., employers cite AI as a factor in about 55,000 job cuts in 2025 as job seekers navigate a tougher market, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
While AI remains just one of many factors leading to job cuts, ADP, the largest U.S. payroll company, found that professional and business services jobs lost a combined 41,000 jobs in December 2025, along with information services jobs in media, communications, and IT. According to the company’s data, employment increased in the health care, education and hospitality industries during the month.
Many of these white-collar roles involve writing, data analysis, and coding, and these tasks are increasingly being performed by generative AI tools. Practical, people-facing work remains under-exposed.
According to Dr. Jasmine Escalera, a career development expert at Zety, a professional development platform, jobs that emphasize interpersonal and practical skills are becoming increasingly attractive to young people wary of automation.
She pointed to research showing that 43% of Gen Z workers who are concerned about AI are leaving entry-level corporate and management roles and heading toward careers that rely on what she calls “human skills,” such as creativity, interpersonal relationships, and practical expertise.
In the same report, 53% of young respondents said they were seriously considering a blue-collar or skilled trade job. Escalera said this is a move workers are making to reduce their exposure to AI, something the Wall Street Journal, a white-collar labor journal, recently urged its readers to consider.
But that axis may come at a cost. Many of the white-collar roles in which workers are concerned about the possibility of automation, from software development to financial analysis, have average salaries well above $75,000 a year, with developers making about $133,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Blue-collar jobs pay less. Many skilled trades, such as electricians and plumbers, receive close to $60,000 a year. These types of jobs often require in-person work, physical labor, and unpredictable schedules, and workers may be willing to make all these tradeoffs to secure their career futures.
For some job seekers, any mention of AI in a job posting is a red flag, so they ignore the job posting altogether.
Roman Callaghan, 30, spent nine months looking for another job after being made redundant in January last year. Mr. Callahan worked as a medical coder for four years at a drug access company, where he performed administrative tasks such as calling insurance companies and entering medical data. After his employer started deploying AI company-wide to streamline workflows, he wondered if the move would one day impact his job. When I was fired two years later, my employer didn’t specifically cite AI as a reason, but I suspected my concerns were justified.
When looking for a new job, he avoided positions with phrases like “AI integration,” “AI first,” or “AI development” in the job description. Callahan had wanted a new job, but her fears about AI kept her from what now felt like a short-term role. He didn’t want to risk being fired again because future employers would eventually use AI to weed out employees.
He said he applied for at least 100 jobs in the past nine months, including data entry, medical coding, call center and paralegal jobs, while intentionally skipping 30 to 40 posts that mentioned AI. During the search, he took odd jobs to make ends meet, first at a local fish store and then at a call center. He stayed there until mid-October, then took a job in data entry.
Avoiding AI-focused work “felt like it narrowed the number of companies I could work for,” Callahan said. “I felt it was worth sticking to my beliefs, even if my options were limited.”
Recruiters say such avoidance behavior is becoming more common. Marshall Scavett, CEO of Precision Sales Recruiting, which helps manufacturers hire sales professionals, said that about a quarter of the sales candidates he has interviewed in the past six months are transitioning away from software-as-a-service jobs.
Scarvet said many customers are concerned that technology sales roles will be replaced by AI and believe that automation is safer for selling industrial equipment. To do so, he said, it is necessary to build relationships with vendors.
“In their opinion, it was unlikely that the job would be taken over by AI,” Scavet said. “AI is more than just going to a factory and selling you machines.”
For experienced workers, encounters with AI in the workplace are prompting them to rethink entire industries or build new skill sets.
Liam Robinson, a 45-year-old animation artist, says he actively avoids working in the mobile games industry, where he has worked for more than a decade. In his last role as an art director, his employer encouraged staff to use generative AI to speed up production. Robinson refused to use AI in his work, but said he was seeing the quality of animation around him deteriorate as his colleagues began to rely on it.
Mr Robinson was fired in September last year after a self-assessment survey revealed that the company did not use AI. That left him disillusioned with the direction of the industry. He believes that AI flattens creativity, erodes craftsmanship, and harms the environment, making him increasingly resistant to working for companies that build or deploy AI.
He is not actively applying for new roles and is instead concentrating on creating webtoon comics. But when he runs out of money, he said he will take other jobs, from driving for Uber to taking out trash. “If I can help and make some money, that’s enough,” Robinson said.
Arianne Mercedes, founder of career strategy firm Revamped, said professionals like Robinson are facing the possibility that the skills they spent years acquiring will no longer be valued, and many are redefining what stability means.
Mercedes says job seekers are increasingly prioritizing roles related to regulated or critical parts of organizations, such as healthcare management, education or compliance, rather than chasing prestige or high pay.
“The goal is not to avoid AI,” Mercedes said. “AI plays a role in transforming the tools of work without compromising authority or decision-making.”
For others, the safest response to AI is to retreat to it.
After four years of designing and developing websites, Dmitry Zozulya decided to quit his job. As AI tools become more prevalent, making it possible to code and create branding at a fraction of the cost it used to cost, the 29-year-old found it increasingly difficult to sell his work on websites and landing pages.
Instead, Zozulya started offering AI-powered automation services to help businesses streamline their workflows. He currently runs a small consulting firm while building personal projects to deepen his experience.
“I believe that adapting is very important,” Zozulya said. “Even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Whether the rise of AI is pushing workers away from entire industries or just specific roles, it’s disrupting many people’s calculations about what their future in the workplace will be, and it’s happening suddenly.
For Ramirez, that recalculation began before he entered the workforce. He believes that switching from computer science to nursing means finding a job after graduation, even if it means letting go of the future he once envisioned.
“The introduction of AI is unlikely to eliminate jobs for health care workers at this point,” Ramirez said. “I can’t speak to the future, but it will still be there for the next few years.”
