Is your job or career choice artificial intelligence proof, and do you have the skills needed to be competitive in an emerging AI world?
Those are among questions students, job seekers, career counselors and educators face as the new cutting-edge form of artificial intelligence, so-called generative AI, begins to reshape the employment landscape costing some jobs while also creating new ones.
“Students are anxious about how AI might affect their future,” said Michelle Sebasco, director of academic partnerships and continuing education at University Park-based Governors State University. “AI is not just an idea anymore. It’s here. The future is now.”
Students are caught in the middle, worried about choosing a career path that might become obsolete and unsure how to prepare for jobs that are just now being created, she said.
Generative AI is a form of AI that can create new, original content in response to a user’s prompt or request including text, images, music, other audio and software code. It learns patterns and structures from large datasets.
“Going forward, I think certainly there will be job loss due to greater use of AI,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and labor expert at Chicago-based global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“There are also going to be whole new jobs and industries created because of AI. But the concern is that cuts will come very quickly and that the new jobs and industries will be built more slowly. There could be this period of a lot of pain American workers could face.”
Out of 62,075 job cuts announced in July, a 140% increase year over year, AI was cited as the reason for 10,000 of those cuts, according to the latest report from the firm. Technology is the leading private sector in job cuts, with 89,251 in 2025, a 36% increase from the 65,863 cuts tracked through July 2024. The industry is being reshaped in part by the advancement of AI, the firm noted.
Meanwhile tech job postings on Indeed have plunged after a post-pandemic boom and have been weak since mid-2023, according to the hiring platform. As of early July 2025, they were down 36% from their early-2020 levels, Indeed’s Hiring Lab reported in July.
Sebasco, whose work includes partnering with workforce development organizations, said workforce centers have seen an influx of information technology professionals being laid off due to AI.
“I never saw this before, and I never thought I would,” she said of the layoffs in what have traditionally been high-demand jobs.
“They’re just not as needed,” she said.
Affected workers are coming back to train and find other opportunities, she said.
“We have strong conviction that AI agents will change how we all work and live,” said Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, in a June posting on the company’s website. The company has operations in the south suburbs.
Think of agents as software systems that use AI to perform tasks on behalf of users or other systems, Jassy said.
Agents let you tell them what you want and do things like scour the web and various data sources and summarize results, engage in deep research, write code, find anomalies, highlight interesting insights, translate language and code into other variants and automate a lot of tasks that consume our time, he explained.
He expects there ultimately will be billions of such agents across every company and in every field.
“Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they’re coming, and coming fast,” he stated.
Amazon has more than 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, which is a small fraction of what Amazon will ultimately build, according to Jassy. He expects in the next few years, AI will reduce the company’s workforce as it gets efficiency gains from using AI.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs,” he noted.
Among jobs most at risk from AI are those with repetitive tasks or knowledge-based tasks, said Challenger. Customer service jobs are also vulnerable to being replaced and call centers could be ripe for disruption, he said.
Careers that are considered “AI-proof” are those that rely heavily on uniquely human skills that are difficult, if not impossible, to automate, Sebasco said. That includes health care positions such as clinical medical assistants, recovery coaches, and certified alcohol and drug counselors. They require empathy, complex ethical judgment and a human touch that AI can’t replicate, she explained.
Skilled trades professions such as computer numerical control machinists, are also considered safe, as are drone operators and first responders, which are jobs that involve complex problem-solving in unpredictable physical environments and that require manual dexterity, Sebasco said.
There is also some safety for creative professionals, she contends.
“While AI can generate content, interior decorators, grant writers, editors and musicians who bring genuine creativity, cultural understanding and a unique point of view remain essential,” she said.
She also doesn’t expect teachers and counselors to be replaced because they build relationships and provide mentorship and emotional support that are crucial for learning and development, she said.
When it comes to new jobs emerging from AI, they will be centered on building, managing and guiding AI technology, she said. That includes AI and machine learning specialists who design and build the AI models that power things such as manufacturing tools and medical diagnostics, she said.
She said other emerging jobs include:
- AI ethics specialists: As AI becomes more integrated into society, these experts are needed to ensure that AI systems are developed and used in a fair, transparent and unbiased manner.
- AI Product Managers: They act as a bridge between technical teams and business leaders to guide the development and launch of AI-powered products.
- Robotics Engineers: They design, build and maintain the physical robots that AI controls.
Brett Porter isn’t worried about AI impacting his career plans. He graduated in May from Governors State University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is now working on his master’s degree. He previously worked as a registered behavior technician and as a teacher’s assistant at a school serving children with special needs.
Porter said he decided to pursue a career in computer science in part because he saw greater opportunity. He’s landed two part-time jobs, one as a financial aid data specialist and another as an account manager for a robotics company.
“AI is going to change how jobs are done, but I think tech is always an evolving field,” he said. “There’s going to be updates, upgrades and different things we have to learn.”
Being knowledgeable about AI will be key to job security, he said.
Sebasco echoed that sentiment.
There’s a shift in skills that are and will be needed, she stressed. Governors State will hold an IT, Quantum, AI, Cybersecurity and Computer Science Roundtable on Sept. 24, designed to be the bridge that helps link academic programs to the real-world skills employers need now and will need in the future, Sebasco said.
“Instead of just talking about which careers are ‘AI-proof,’ this event brings local employers to the table with GovState faculty and workforce leaders to actively build the talent pipeline for those careers,” she said.
“It’s an opportunity for industry to directly influence curriculum, ensuring that students are not just being counseled about the future of work, but are being trained with the specific, in-demand skills they need to lead in it.”
Francine Knowles at [email protected] is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.