Short answer: yes, some jobs will disappear.
Longer answer: the internet’s favourite panic headline — “AI will replace everyone” — is a little too neat for what is actually happening.
The International Labour Organization estimates that around one in four workers globally are in occupations with some level of exposure to generative AI. But its research says transformation is more likely than total replacement because most jobs still require human judgement, responsibility, communication or physical work. ILO research
So no, your entire career probably will not be deleted by a chatbot overnight.
But parts of your job? The boring parts, the repetitive parts, the “please put this into a spreadsheet” parts?
Those are absolutely being automated.
The new workplace anxiety is not imaginary. It is just badly explained.
Gen Z is not being dramatic about this
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, 63% of Gen Z respondents worry that generative AI will eliminate jobs. Around 61% worry it will make it harder for younger people to enter the workforce because AI is automating tasks traditionally given to beginners. Deloitte survey
That fear makes sense.
For decades, entry-level workers were told to “get your foot in the door.” You started with research, admin, basic writing, customer service, scheduling or junior analysis. You learned by doing the smaller tasks before getting trusted with bigger ones.
Now some of those smaller tasks can be done by AI in seconds.
The problem is not only that AI may remove jobs. It may also remove the traditional training ground where people learned how to do them.
That is the part nobody puts in the futuristic office montage.
The job may survive. The job description will not.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that 170 million roles could be created globally by 2030, while 92 million could be displaced. That would mean a net increase of 78 million jobs — but also a lot of disruption for people whose current roles change or disappear. World Economic Forum report
Translation: “AI is creating jobs” does not automatically help the person whose job was cut this month.
A new role in AI governance, cybersecurity or data infrastructure may exist somewhere. That does not mean a retail worker, junior designer or fresh graduate can instantly move into it.
The transition matters.
The future of work is probably less “humans versus robots” and more “who gets trained, and who gets left behind?”
So what should Gen Z actually do?
First: stop treating “learn AI” as a complete career plan.
Knowing how to generate a paragraph is not the same as understanding a customer, spotting a lie, making a decision or taking responsibility when something goes wrong.
The useful combination is:
- one real-world skill
- basic AI fluency
- strong communication
- the ability to judge whether an answer is actually good
- evidence that you can make or improve something
AI can help you move faster. It cannot automatically make you interesting, trustworthy or useful.
And those “soft skills” everyone loves to dismiss? Deloitte’s research found that Gen Z and millennials rank communication, leadership, empathy and networking among the skills they see as important for career progression.
That is not anti-tech. It is a reminder that work is not just task completion.
The most replaceable thing might be the task — not you
A person who spends all day copying information between systems is vulnerable to automation.
A person who understands why the information matters, catches errors, explains it to other people and makes a smart decision with it is harder to replace.
That distinction is becoming the career cheat code.
The safest question is not:
“Will AI replace my job?”
Try asking:
“Which parts of my job can AI do, and what valuable work is left after that?”
That answer will be different for everyone.
Your advantage is not pretending AI does not exist. It is learning where human judgement still counts.
The honest conclusion
AI is replacing some work. It is reshaping much more work. It will probably create new opportunities too — but not evenly, instantly or fairly.
So yes, Gen Z has a reason to be worried.
But panic is not a strategy.
Build a skill people already value. Learn enough AI to work with it instead of being confused by it. Keep developing the human abilities that make your work thoughtful, clear and trustworthy.
The future probably will not belong to people who avoid AI completely.
It also will not belong only to people who know the most tools.
It will belong to people who can use the tools — and still know what should be done.
