Experts say there will still be opportunities ahead in everything from teaching to hotels and the law
Entering the world of work often brings some uncertainty, but now there is another question: how can I AI-proof my career?
We asked people from across various industries what they think the impact of AI will be on careers, and which jobs may be less affected. While it is still early days for the tech, many had ideas about how you can best prepare yourself for a successful career in this new world.
Medicine
‘Pharmacists,doctors, nurses and other prescribing clinicians will have a role’
Some of the healthcare jobs most vulnerable to disruption by AI include medical secretaries, pharmacy support staff, prescription processing and call handling teams, says Hira Malik, a superintendent pharmacist and co-founder of Oushk Pharmacy.
She says the impact will fall on admin-led healthcare roles where staff are working with set forms, records or patient queries, rather than making clinical decisions. In online pharmacy, that could include checking consultation forms, chasing missing details, processing prescription requests, triaging standard patient queries or routing cases to a pharmacist. While these positions are unlikely to disappear completely, many of the tasks they involve could become automated.
Malik says pharmacists, doctors, nurses and other prescribing clinicians remain far less susceptible to replacement because they carry responsibility for patient safety and treatment decisions. “AI can help organise information and flag risks, but it cannot decide whether treatment is safe or appropriate,” she says.
Some specialities, such as plastic surgery, are unlikely to be replaced owing to their highly individual nature, but areas such as radiology are more at risk. Consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Riaz Agha says: “Plastic surgery is too bespoke and too individualised. Every patient is different.” But AI may eventually help a surgeon analyse past cases to support their decision-making, he adds.
According to Agha, radiology is a speciality “which is particularly vulnerable”. He says: “There have now been many studies showing that AI can interpret scans with extremely high levels of accuracy and reliability. That does not necessarily mean radiologists disappear, but their role may evolve significantly.”
His advice is that future doctors should learn how to use AI “properly and understand both its strengths and limitations”.
Education and early years
‘Childminding is one of the careers least likely to be replaced by AI’
In education, AI is again most likely to affect administrative and routine teaching support roles rather than fully replacing teachers, experts say.
“In terms of career choices, teaching is an excellent one,” says Sharath Jeevan, founder of Oxford University’s Generational Success Lab. “Students will always need trusted adult relationships to help them learn.”
Another area expected to continue to employ people is childcare. Brett Wigdortz, founder and chief executive of the childcare agency Tiney, says childminding is unlikely to be taken over by technology. While AI can support communication and organisation, he says “people want a human being to take care of their children.”
He says that demand for childcare is strong, with places filling quickly, and childminding can offer flexible, home-based work with good earning potential. Other related jobs in the sector include managing nurseries, or high-end nannying or tutoring.
‘As AI lowers the cost of delivering legal services … more jobs could be available’
Paralegal and junior lawyer roles are likely to be the most affected by AI because they often involve routine work such as document reviews, drafting first versions of legal documents, gathering information and completing forms. “These are all tasks AI is especially strong at,” says Pierre Proner, the chief executive at Lawhive, an online legal services company that uses AI to help people find and work with lawyers.
However, AI will not eliminate entry-level legal jobs.
“The roles will remain but they will just change,” he says. Instead of spending their days on repetitive legal and administrative work, junior lawyers are likely to focus earlier on applying legal judgment and on developing their skills interacting with clients. The other area is the supervision of the work that AI agents carry out. “AI still needs oversight,” he says.
Brett Dixon, the vice-president of the Law Society of England and Wales, says automating routine tasks could create “more time and opportunities for junior lawyers to think more deeply about complex legal issues”.
Some legal areas that are less routine, such as family law or litigation, are less directly affected by AI. However, Proner believes AI agents are still extremely competent at helping a lawyer prepare for a court case, and for running the back office of a law firm more efficiently.
One of the profession’s biggest challenges, Proner says, is determining “what are the progression paths from junior to senior lawyers” when many of the traditional training tasks are being automated.
Graduates, he says, should develop AI skills now, arguing that these are becoming as important as proficiency in Word or Excel once was. He says firms are increasingly assessing candidates on their ability to use the technology, asking potential recruits: “How are you using AI? Are you creating vibe-coded apps [with AI prompts]? Are you working with AI agents?”
He says far more people need access to the law than firms are capable of working with. As AI lowers the cost of delivering legal services, he says more jobs could be the outcome.
Hospitality
‘Human-to-human connection, should not be replaced by AI’
Prof Graham Miller, the academic director of the Westmont Institute of Tourism and Hospitality at Nova School of Business and Economics, says AI could reshape the distribution of jobs within hotels, shifting employment from back-office functions to front-office, customer-facing roles.
There will always be a role for human staff in hospitality, he says. “I was recently in a hotel in Barcelona, and the staff there were amazing – genuinely warm, human, and welcoming,” he says. “They would sit down and make you a cup of coffee. There is no way AI is doing that kind of job. That sort of human-to-human connection, which the best hotels have always delivered, should not be replaced by AI.
“Ideally, AI should make it better by handling routine tasks, such as answering emails, so that when I sit down with you, I can genuinely talk to you rather than having to get back to my emails.”
Miller suggests that creative roles in hospitality, particularly chefs, are less vulnerable to AI than routine operational jobs. Drawing comparisons with debates in the music, arts, and entertainment industries, he says that AI currently struggles to replicate genuinely creative human work but it may expose mediocre work: “Just because [something is] made by a human does not mean [it is] creative.” More routine culinary tasks, such as “flipping burgers or making pizza”, could eventually be automated, whereas AI is “not there yet” when it comes to producing truly innovative and creative cuisine, he says.
Trades
‘Hands-on trades such as bricklaying or carpentry offer career opportunities’
Brian Berry, the chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, says AI is beginning to reshape parts of the construction sector but its impact will be uneven.
“Hands-on trades such as bricklaying, carpentry and plastering are less exposed to AI and continue to offer strong, long-term career opportunities,” he says, adding that this is particularly true if you work for small local firms.
Large-scale projects could be affected in the the future as some hands-on trades are automated, but its implementation is still a way off, he says.
White-collar and administrative office job roles are being hit, including some jobs in planning and estimating. He says he expects more people to recognise the value that practical trades such as local builders working on an extension can offer.
However, he says, “perception remains a challenge”. Research by the federation showed that fewer than half of parents (47%) would recommend their child take up a career in construction. “That has to change,” Berry says. “With growing demand for skilled trades and the resilience of these roles in the face of AI, construction offers a rewarding, future-proof career path, which we want more people to consider.”
Banking and finance
‘Demand should rise for data scientists and AI engineers’
Tomasz Noetzel, a senior banking analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, says the jobs in banking most affected by AI are likely to be “in call centre, customer service staff, middle-office operations teams, retail branch employees and IT support functions”.
These jobs involve large volumes of repetitive work that can increasingly be handled by AI-powered assistants. “That does not mean these jobs disappear overnight,” he adds.
“Demand should rise for data scientists, AI engineers, software developers … with banks expecting growth in technology and data-related roles. Clients want up-to-date information on investment portfolios which can be done with AI.”
Noetzel says: “Few banking jobs will be untouched, but high-judgment, specialist roles appear relatively resilient.” In a survey of European banks by Bloomberg Intelligence, respondents “viewed research analysts, compliance and surveillance analysts, risk-modelling specialists and internal auditors as among the least exposed job categories. Credit underwriting is also increasingly using AI, but banks continue to emphasise human oversight.”
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