Matthew Ramirez started at Western Governors University in 2025 as a computer science major, attracted by the promise of a high-paying, flexible career as a programmer. But as the headlines grew technical layoff and the potential of AI Replace entry level codersHe began to question whether that path would actually lead to a job.
When the 20-year-old interviewed for a datacenter technician role in June and never heard back, his suspicions deepened. In December, Ramirez decided to do what he felt was safe: to step away from computer science altogether. She abandoned her planned studies to apply to nursing school. He comes from a family of nurses, and considers this field to be more static and difficult to automate than coding.
“Even though AI is not yet at the point where it will overtake all these entry-level jobs, by the time I graduate, it likely will,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez is not alone in having his career reshaped by concerns over AI. like there are students like them reconsider their heads Due to concerns that AI could disrupt their employment prospects, more established employees – some with decades of experience – are rethinking their trajectories as they encounter AI at work and share the same unease. Some employees are avoiding it altogether; Others are adopting it.
It is unclear when AI will become advanced enough to replace some white-collar workers and how many jobs it will be able to take over. But nervousness about its potential impact is already prompting people to change course, reshaping the labor market before automation fully arrives.
It’s clear why employees are feeling stressed. World Economic Forum Project that AI could displace 92 million roles worldwide by 2030, including many white-collar positions. In the US, employers have cited AI as a factor in cutting about 55,000 jobs in 2025. Challenger, Gray and ChristmasA consulting firm, as job seekers enter a difficult market.
While AI is still one of the many factors that are causing layoffs, ADP, the largest US payroll company, found that information services jobs in media, telecommunications and IT, as well as professional and business services roles, Collectively 41,000 jobs lost in December 2025. In the same month, employment increased in health care, education and hospitality, according to the firm’s data.
Many of those white-collar roles involve writing, data analysis, and coding – tasks that generative AI tools can do faster. Practical, people-facing work remains less exposed.
According to Dr. Jasmine Escalera, career development expert at Zeti, a professional development platform, jobs that emphasize interpersonal and practical skills are more appealing to young people who are wary of automation.
he pointed Research It shows that the 43% of Gen Z workers who are concerned about AI are moving away from entry-level corporate and administrative roles and toward careers that involve what she calls “human skills,” which involve creativity, interpersonal relationships, and practical expertise.
In the same report, 53% of young respondents said they were seriously considering blue-collar or skilled trade work. Escalera said this is one step employees are taking to reduce exposure to AI and one that wall street journalThe paper of record for white-collar work recently urged its readers to consider this.
But the pivot may come from sacrifices. Employees are concerned that many white-collar roles could be automated — from software development to financial analysis — given the average salary is more than $75,000 per year, while developers earn about $133,000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. Blue-collar jobs pay less. Many skilled trades such as electricians and plumbers come close to $60,000 per year. These types of jobs often require individual work, physical labor, and less predictable schedules – all trade-offs employees can accept in their efforts to improve their careers in the future.
For some job seekers, any mention of AI in a job listing is a red flag, so they’re skipping it altogether.
After being laid off from his job last January, Roman Callaghan, 30, spent nine months looking for his next job. As a medical coder at a medication access firm for four years, Callaghan handled administrative tasks such as calling insurance providers and entering medical data. When his employer began implementing AI in the company to streamline workflows, he wondered whether the move would affect his job one day. When he was laid off two years later, he suspected that his fears had come true, although his employer did not specifically cite AI as a reason.
When they looked for new work, they avoided any roles that mentioned phrases like “integrating AI”, “AI-first” or “developing AI” in the job description. Callaghan wanted a new job, but his AI anxiety turned him away from roles that now seemed short-term to him. He didn’t want to risk being fired again because future employers would eventually use AI to thin their ranks.
Over the past nine months, he said, he applied to at least 100 jobs in data entry, medical coding, call centers and paralegal work, while deliberately leaving out 30 to 40 postings that referenced AI. While he was searching, he worked odd jobs to make ends meet, first at a local fish shop and later at a call centre. He stayed there until mid-October, when he got a data entry job.
Avoiding AI-focused jobs “felt like it reduced the number of companies I could work for,” Callaghan said. “Even though my options were limited, it felt worthwhile to hold on to my convictions.”
Recruiters say this type of procrastination is becoming common. Marshall Scabet, CEO of Precision Sales Recruiting, which helps manufacturers hire sales professionals, said about a quarter of the sales candidates he talked to in the past six months were trying to move away from software-as-a-service (SaaS) jobs.
Many customers told him, Scabet said, that they worry that their technical sales roles could be replaced by AI, and that they believe selling industrial equipment is safer than automation. To do this, he said, requires building human relationships with vendors.
“In their opinion, the likelihood of AI taking over that job was low,” Scabet said. “AI is not just about going to a factory and telling a machine how to do it.”
For more experienced workers, their encounters with AI in the workplace are leading them to rethink entire industries or create new skill sets.
Liam Robinson, a 45-year-old animation artist, says he is actively avoiding a job in the mobile gaming industry he has worked in for more than a decade. In his last role as an art director, his employer encouraged employees to use generative AI to speed up production. Robinson, who declined to use AI in his work, said he has noticed a decline in the quality of animation around him as his colleagues have begun to rely on the technology.
Last September, Robinson was fired from his job after revealing in a self-assessment survey that he was not using AI. This left him disillusioned with the direction of the industry. They believe AI stifles creativity, destroys craftsmanship and damages the environment, fueling companies’ resistance to building or deploying them.
He is not actively applying for new roles and is instead focusing on creating webtoon comics. But if the money runs out, he said, he’ll take other jobs, from driving for Uber to trash disposal. “As long as I’m useful and making a little money, that’s enough,” Robinson said.
As professionals like Robinson face the prospect that the skills they spent years mastering are no longer valued, many are redefining sustainability, according to Ariane Mercedes, founder of career strategy firm Revamped.
Rather than chasing prestige or high salaries, Mercedes said its job-seeking clients are prioritizing roles tied to regulated or essential parts of an organization, such as healthcare administration, education or compliance.
“The aim is not to avoid AI,” Mercedes said. “It has to be in roles where AI replaces work tools without reducing authority or decision-making ability.”
For others, the safest response to AI is to succumb to it.
After designing and developing websites for four years, Dmitry Zozulya decided to leave his job. As AI tools have proliferated and made it possible to code and create branding at a fraction of the cost, selling website and landing page work has become increasingly difficult for the 29-year-old.
Instead, Zozulya began offering AI-powered automation services to help businesses streamline workflows. He now runs a small consultancy, producing personal projects to deepen his experience.
“I believe it is very important to adapt,” Zozulya said. “Even when it’s inconvenient.”
Whether the rise of AI is driving workers away from entire industries or just certain roles, it’s disrupting many people’s calculations about what their future in the workplace will look like — and it’s happening suddenly.
For Ramirez, that recalibration started even before she entered the workforce. She believes that switching from computer science to nursing means she will find work after graduation, even if it means giving up the future she once envisioned.
“When you put AI into the picture, the likelihood of health care jobs disappearing is just less,” Ramirez said. “I can’t say about the future, but in the next few years, they will still be there.”
