Artificial intelligence is reshaping the business landscape, with lasting consequences for the job market. According to a World Economic Forum jobs report, 66 percent of companies plan to hire candidates with AI skills, while 40 percent plan to trim their workforces as more tasks are automated. Now, a more advanced type of AI known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is raising even greater concerns about the future of work.
What Will AGI Do to the Job Market?
If AGI is achieved, it could automate many jobs that are repetitive or data-intensive, displacing customer service representatives, receptionists, financial analysts and more. At the same time, it could create new jobs like AI ethicists, machine learning engineers and nuclear engineers. In a worst-case scenario, AGI could automate all available jobs, forcing countries to explore new methods for financially supporting citizens in a post-labor world.
Unlike simpler forms of AI, AGI could transfer knowledge it learns from one task to problems it has never faced before. This ability to learn as humans do could spell trouble for workers, who are already under pressure from automation technologies. Although still theoretical, AGI may be just beyond the horizon, making it more urgent than ever to consider what exactly a highly evolved form of AI could mean for the job market and society as a whole.
What Can Artificial General Intelligence Do?
Artificial general intelligence, also known as strong AI, is a theoretical form of AI that could replicate the way humans think and learn. It could gain insights solely from raw data and experiences without the need for any human intervention, applying this knowledge to new tasks it was never programmed to do. Humans wouldn’t need to clean or prepare data for processing or write rules that algorithms must strictly follow. AGI would then possess the self-awareness to solve problems, make decisions and adapt to changing conditions on its own.
Because of its versatility, AGI is anticipated to take on higher-level tasks across a variety of industries. It could analyze patient data to predict diseases and aid healthcare professionals in developing personalized treatments; help self-driving cars navigate different scenarios based on real-time data; and automatically complete instant trades based on market behavior analysis and updated financial models.
Are We Close to Achieving AGI?
It depends on who you ask. Some tech leaders think it’s only a matter of time. For example, Elon Musk believes AI could surpass human intelligence as early as 2026, Mark Zuckerberg has been building an AGI taskforce at Meta seemingly in anticipation of the technology’s arrival and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has proposed that the company has already achieved AGI thanks to progress made by its GPT models.
Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis suggest that AGI may arrive a little after 2030. And a study conducted by AIMultiple extends the AGI timeline even further. Upon reviewing 10 surveys that include more than 5,200 predictions from AI researchers and experts, the company found that most surveys predict a 50 percent probability of reaching AGI between 2040 and 2061.
Why such wide-ranging predictions? The problem is that there’s no universally accepted definition of AGI. As a result, companies working on developing AI may use different benchmarks to measure whether they’ve achieved their own definition of AGI — and these definitions can change over time.
Regardless, AI technology continues to make major strides and take on even more complex tasks. Even if predictions of an early AGI arrival are wrong, the fears around automation and job disruptions are real and growing.
What Jobs Will AGI Eliminate?
Jobs that consist of repetitive or data-heavy tasks are most at risk of being automated by AGI, including receptionists, accountants and automotive workers.
Engineering
There is a range of coding tools at software engineering teams’ disposal, and developers can even collaborate with AI to perform vibe coding, describing a coding project in plain language and letting AI generate the code. As a result, junior software engineering and programming roles may be sacrificed in the name of efficiency.
“Developer agents are becoming more capable, particularly at solving common problems and writing standardized code,” Paul Bratcher, co-founder of unfold AI, an AI consultancy that regularly shares insights on the AI industry, told Built In. “What once took a team can now be handled by a single individual with access to the right tools.”
Sales
Sales teams can incorporate AI in a number of ways. Generative AI tools can quickly create copy for emails to prospects and branded materials. Chatbots can also handle basic questions and maintain conversations in their early stages. And a 2024 Salesforce report notes that using AI to communicate with prospects and customers has become a top benefit of the technology. As these tasks become automated more widely, lower-level sales roles could fade away.
Accounting
Accountants are responsible for tracking and analyzing an organization’s financial data, which is a specialty of AI. Compiling data, assessing it and entering it into a spreadsheet are all tasks that AI systems can handle. Businesses could then shift away from accountants and bookkeepers, only hiring the necessary personnel to oversee the work of AI tools.
Finance
Artificial intelligence has the ability to process vast amounts of financial data, compare it to financial models and execute real-time decisions. This makes it ideal for instant trading on the stock market. As banks, insurers and other financial institutions continue to integrate AI into their workflows, traders, financial analysts and other finance roles could disappear — especially across entry-level roles.
Automotive
The automotive industry is on the brink of being completely transformed by AI. The rise of self-driving cars could eliminate jobs in areas like rideshare services and trucking. In addition, car brands are using AI tools to automate various parts of the assembly process, potentially taking over the jobs of more automotive workers.
Customer Service
Improvements in conversational AI have produced chatbots that can navigate more intricate conversations. Unlike human customer service representatives, chatbots can answer customer queries 24/7. Automating more of these interactions can relieve the burden on customer service teams and let businesses minimize their headcount in this department.
Hospitality
Receptionist roles could slowly become automated, thanks to a combination of AI and robotics. AI can equip social robots with the intelligence and natural language generation needed to engage with customers in hospitality settings. And facial recognition can facilitate keyless guestroom entry for convenience.
Retail
Many grocery stores have already adopted automated checkout stations to varying degrees, and this practice is likely to expand. As techniques like computer vision improve, AI systems will be able to better identify different types of food and produce, supporting a faster, contactless checkout process without cashiers.
What Jobs Will AGI Create?
The introduction of AGI would require personnel like AI ethicists, data engineers and machine learning engineers to help companies manage more advanced AI systems.
AI Ethicist
Companies must prioritize safety when building and deploying AI products. AI ethicists can help teams implement a responsible AI framework, upholding values like fairness, transparency and accountability. They can also stay on top of algorithmic bias and other issues to ensure products positively impact users.
Data Ethicist
Many AI tools require large amounts of real-time data to function. This can lead to security issues in fields that deal with sensitive information, such as the healthcare industry. A data ethicist can work with departments to design best practices around managing user data and adhering to data regulations.
Software Developer
While generative AI tools may perform the actual coding, software developers will likely transition into the role of managing these tools. They can feed generators prompts to quickly produce lines of code and then review the outputs to remove any errors and make sure the code meets the project’s needs.
Data Engineer
As companies embrace AI systems, data engineers will be crucial in preparing the data that AI depends on. This role is charged with cleaning and storing data in a way that’s easy to access and process. More data engineers will be needed to address the growing demands for properly formatted data to fuel AI algorithms.
AI Engineer
AI engineers build, test and monitor an organization’s AI tools. They also develop the AI infrastructure needed to support AI applications in the long term. AI engineers may determine areas of a business that could be improved by AI as well, implementing AI-based solutions to automate workflows.
Machine Learning Engineer
Machine learning engineers create machine learning systems for companies to use. They work closely with machine learning models, training and fine-tuning them. Even after models are deployed, ML engineers evaluate their performance to make adjustments. They also keep an organization’s ML libraries and frameworks up-to-date.
Nuclear Engineer
Data centers shoulder the energy demands of AI tools, and they’ll likely need more power to sustain AI products in the coming years. Nuclear energy could serve as a viable option, delivering energy without a large carbon footprint. As a result, nuclear engineering roles could expand as data centers are pressed to meet the demands of more complex AI.
Data Center Manager
Data center managers will be tasked with ensuring data centers function properly, so they can support more complex AI calculations. Data center managers must know how to monitor and maintain the hardware, software and network components of a data center; use data visualization tools to generate key insights; and guide major projects like data migrations and infrastructure expansions.
What Does a Post-Labor Economy Driven by AGI Look Like?
The creation of AGI may require us to reimagine our relationships to our governments, other nations and labor itself — which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.
Increased Investment in Upskilling and Reskilling
While it’s difficult to say whether AGI will eliminate all jobs, there’s no doubt that AI will completely reshape various roles and industries. According to a PwC AI jobs survey, all industries are increasingly using AI, and skills in jobs exposed to AI are shifting 66 percent faster than those tied to non-AI-exposed roles. This means that more and more workers must learn new skills and tools on the fly to avoid being replaced entirely.
But upskilling shouldn’t fall solely on the individual, given the far-reaching consequences of AI in the workplace.
“Usually it’s the professionals who need to pay to go to vocational schools or take some courses,” Nikki Sun, a research and program manager for the AI Governance Initiative at the University of Oxford, told Built In. “I think both the government and industries need to work closer to provide some training programs or transitional programs with public funds to support the worker transition.”
Companies can implement skills programs to train workers for different roles as their current ones become obsolete. Governments may even step in and collaborate with organizations to design broad reskilling programs. For instance, Google and the U.S. government plan to train more than 100,000 electrical workers in using AI tools by 2030 to maintain a modernized energy grid. More coordinated efforts like these will be necessary to prevent workers from getting left behind in the wake of automation.
Larger Divide Between Owners and Workers
Not everyone will be impacted equally by AGI. The owners of AI companies stand to profit handsomely from AI-driven automation, as do the governments that control the resources needed to produce and maintain AI. Meanwhile, workers could lose their bargaining power because their labor no longer holds the same value.
In a world where machines outperform humans, the owners of AI systems could neglect the rest of society if they wanted to. Then again, this is a really big ‘if.’ A post-labor future doesn’t guarantee an existential crisis, but governments will need to take proactive measures to protect people from the worst effects of a jobless society.
Broader Social Safety Nets
If AGI automates all available jobs, an option is to establish a universal basic income, or UBI — a payment regularly distributed by the government to all its citizens with no strings attached. The concept has been gaining traction, with Sam Altman-backed nonprofit research organization OpenResearch conducting a three-year study on UBI and University of Chicago researchers leading a guaranteed income study as well.
In a society with an entirely automated labor market, the government could pool AI companies’ profits into a UBI fund to deliver regular monthly payments to all its citizens. That said, a UBI program alone can only do so much.
“A lot of people’s sense of achievement and fulfillment still come from work, and work is not just a source of income, but also a way of living, a way for them to interact with the world,” Sun said. “If we’re talking about giving basic income for the current generation, who are already exposed to that kind of job market and that kind of perspective, it would be really difficult — it’s a huge mental transition.”
Services beyond UBI would be needed to promote a well-rounded life in the absence of economic work, such as mental health programs and community initiatives that foster connection and a sense of purpose. As long as governments are willing to work with their citizens to prepare for a post-labor world, an automated future doesn’t have to be a hopeless one.
Greater Uncertainty in the Geopolitical Arena
Besides influencing power dynamics within countries, AGI could sway the balance of power between nations as well. A 2025 report by research organization RAND explores a range of scenarios, including the U.S. consolidating power with AGI, other countries gaining the upper hand from the technology and no countries benefiting at all.
For its part, the U.S. government has gone to great lengths to strengthen its hold on AI technology, with president Donald Trump laying out next steps in his AI Action Plan. However, the release of DeepSeek-R1 has opened the door to a future where AI could be more decentralized and accessible.
While the AI race is currently a two-nation competition between the U.S. and China, there’s no guarantee these global superpowers will remain in control of the AI landscape. For now, it’s hard to say whether AGI would tip the scales in favor of the haves or have-nots in the AI industry.
How to Prepare for a World With AGI
AGI could drastically transform the workplace, but there are steps you can take to position yourself to succeed in an automation-heavy environment.
Become Comfortable With AI Tools
Experiment with popular AI tools to determine how you can use them to work faster and complete more complex tasks. Those who become AI literate — especially newer professionals — will be able to better adapt to a job market dictated by automation.
“People in early career stages may find they can deliver more advanced work with the support of intelligent systems,” Bratcher said. “For example, someone with limited formal training might still produce high-quality strategic documents, provided they understand how to guide the tools correctly.”
Practice Continuous Learning
Make continuous learning a habit by picking up new skills, tools and knowledge throughout your career. The same role could be redefined multiple times by AGI, but you can remain employable if you demonstrate an expanded skill set that meets the changing needs of the job.
Cultivate Your Soft Skills
Build up your soft skills. These include traits like “human judgment, situational awareness and the ability to navigate uncertainty,” according to Bratcher. With AGI further automating hard skills, knowing how to work with systems and people could make all the difference.
“These are not abstract qualities,” Bratcher added. “They show up in how decisions are made, how relationships are managed and how teams operate.”
Embrace a Flexible Mindset
Prepare yourself for the possibility of pivoting between responsibilities and roles. Organizations and entire industries are likely to be disrupted by AGI. Be open to unfamiliar opportunities and career paths, so you don’t get stuck in a job or sector that becomes irrelevant.
Specialize in a Particular Field
Master particular skills and tasks in your field that are too complicated to be automated for the time being. These include developing your own best practices for handling company data and learning how to communicate technical concepts to different audiences. This way, you can become a professional with specialized knowledge who cannot be easily replaced by AGI.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of jobs will AGI most likely replace first?
The first jobs to be replaced by AGI will likely involve repetitive or data-heavy tasks, including receptionists, customer service representatives and accountants.
Will AGI eliminate all human employment?
It’s difficult to say whether AGI will automate all available jobs, given that it’s still a theoretical concept. If AGI does automate all jobs, countries will need to devise ways to financially support their citizens in a post-labor world. For instance, governments may set up universal basic income programs to provide regular payments that sustain people in a jobless society.
How soon could AGI impact the job market?
Artificial intelligence currently has numerous use cases across healthcare, finance, education and other industries. It follows that AGI would likely have an immediate impact on the job market as soon as it’s introduced to businesses. While some industry experts think AGI is already here, others believe it won’t be reached for another two to three decades.
What can individuals do to prepare for an AGI future?
Professionals can prepare for the arrival of AGI and its potential impact on the job market by doing the following:
- Learning how to use popular AI tools.
- Embracing continuous learning as a lifelong practice.
- Developing soft skills like communication and teamwork.
- Adopting a flexible mindset that’s open to change.
- Mastering specialized skills that can’t easily be automated.
Can governments protect jobs?
Yes, governments can step in to regulate the development and implementation of AGI across industries. They can also establish skills programs to help workers transition in the face of potential job losses and disruptions. However, it’s a question of whether governments will choose to make the necessary investments to protect workers from the effects of AI-driven automation.
