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• AI adoption is set to impact 300 million full-time jobs globally, with automation reshaping roles across industries (Goldman Sachs).
• According to the World Economic Forum, 97 million new jobs are expected to be created by AI by 2025, even as 85 million are displaced.

Having spent considerable time covering AI’s quiet but steady move into mainstream workflows in nearly every corner of industry, I’ve come to realise that most conversations about the future of work tend to revolve around the same anxiety: will AI take our jobs?

Earlier this week, that very fear surfaced again when Dario Amodei, CEO of —a major player in the large language model space—delivered a stark warning. In his view, artificial intelligence could wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs. Customer support, junior programming, low-level sales—many of these roles, he suggests, may disappear within the next five years. He even floated the idea that unemployment rates could spike to between 10 and 20 per cent as a result.

Amodei’s take wasn’t framed as a scare tactic. He positioned it as realism, a call for urgency and transparency in an industry that too often races ahead without consulting those left behind.

But not everyone agrees. Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur, investor, and tech optimist, pushed back publicly. In his eyes, Amodei’s scenario reflects only one possibility—and perhaps a narrow one. Instead of mass displacement, Cubans see a reshaping of the economy, a surge in entrepreneurial activity, and the birth of entirely new job categories driven by AI.

So who’s right? And where do you, the reader, fit in?

Two Sides of the Same Coin

To understand this debate, you have to grasp how radically AI has shifted expectations in the workplace. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot can now do tasks once considered uniquely human—writing code, drafting emails, and creating artwork. As companies race to integrate these tools, it’s fair to ask: Are they trying to replace workers or augment them?

Amodei argues for realism. He sees AI as powerful enough to eliminate tasks and roles that were previously protected by complexity or nuance. In a recent talk, he said, “It’s not just repetitive manual work anymore. AI can now perform tasks that require basic reasoning and decision-making, especially in entry-level roles.�

He’s not alone. Research from Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could affect 300 million full-time jobs globally. McKinsey predicts that by 2030, as many as 800 million workers may need to switch occupations due to automation and AI.

But Cuban’s counterpoint is grounded in history. Every major technological revolution—the printing press, electricity, the internet—caused upheaval but also created new industries. Jobs were lost, yes, but others emerged, often ones that couldn’t have been imagined beforehand. Cuban sees AI following this same pattern.

He argues, for instance, that while AI can automate coding, it also empowers solo developers to build software that would’ve once required entire teams. It creates leverage. That leverage can translate into new ventures, new tools, new platforms, and jobs to manage them all.

“You’ll see people who never coded before building applications. That’s a new skill. That’s a new job,� Cuban said in a recent interview.

Evidence from the Field

The numbers provide a mixed picture. The World Economic Forum predicts AI will create 97 million jobs by 2025, even as it displaces 85 million. In the UK, AI-related roles have grown 74% annually, according to LinkedIn data. NHS trusts are already hiring data engineers and AI specialists to help deploy diagnostic tools. Vodafone is seeking AI leads to shape customer service strategies. These aren’t theoretical trends—they’re happening now.

On the other side, companies like Klarna and Duolingo have quietly cut support roles after rolling out AI chat agents. IBM paused hiring for thousands of back-office jobs it believes AI will soon handle.

The reality is likely in the middle. Some jobs will go. Others will morph. Many will emerge from scratch.

Where Do You Fit In

This is not a story about winners and losers. It’s a story about choices—yours and your company’s. So the question is, are you preparing?

Here are some concrete ways to navigate this shift:

1. Assess your task vulnerability. Is most of your work repetitive or rules-based? If so, can you start taking on more creative or strategic tasks?
2. Embrace AI tools. Learn how to use the AI platforms shaping your industry. That doesn’t just mean prompting ChatGPT. It means understanding the workflows AI is enabling and experimenting early.
3. Build human strengths. Cuban is clear: empathy, vision, critical thinking—these remain beyond the reach of most AI. Are you doubling down on those?
4. Look at adjacent fields. New roles are forming in areas like prompt engineering, model evaluation, AI ethics, and workflow integration. Could one of these be your next move?

A UK Perspective

This conversation matters deeply in the UK. A PwC survey found that nearly half of UK workers are worried about losing their jobs to AI. Yet only 26% feel they’re getting enough reskilling support.

Meanwhile, UK tech startups are capitalising on the AI wave. Companies like Synthesia (video AI), DeepMind (research), and Faculty (applied AI) are hiring aggressively—not just PhDs, but designers, strategists, and product managers who can translate AI into real-world value.

If you’re in a traditional role—marketing, finance, customer service—AI literacy is becoming as fundamental as Excel once was.

One More Thing to Think About

Amodei isn’t wrong to be cautious. AI is moving quickly, and policy is slow to catch up. Left unchecked, it could concentrate power and wealth, leaving entire groups behind. Cuban doesn’t deny that risk, but he prefers to bet on possibility.

So ask yourself: which part of this story do you want to be part of?

Are you frozen by fear, or moving with the shift?

Are you waiting to see what AI will do to your job, or figuring out what you can do with AI?