AI and Robots Won’t Take All the Jobs — Here’s Why
People feared the steam engine, the assembly line, and even computers. But is AI a different monster?
Every generation has had its fears, convinced that advancing technology will spell the end of human jobs. The steam engine was going to do the work of “a million men” and hence put everyone out of work. Mechanized agriculture was going to leave the country jobless. The rise of industrial machinery sparked the Luddite riots as weavers and textile workers smashed the machines that were "stealing" their livelihoods.
And yet, here we are — still working, still adapting, still finding new ways to create value, and near historic lows in unemployment.
“But wait!” I hear you say, “This isn’t like those other revolutions. You forgot that AI is fundamentally different.”
No, I didn’t. Let me explain:
This Fear Is Nothing New
To look forward, we must first look back, because:
Those who know history should not be doomed to repeat its judgment errors.
So, let’s start by looking back at the 1800s, when 80% of American jobs were on farms. 80% is an insane number to ponder. So yes, the mechanization of agriculture was absolutely going to put (almost literally) everyone out of work.
Except, of course, it didn’t. Today, only 2% of Americans work in farming, and yet we don’t have 78% unemployment.
But imagine being on the “hasn’t happened yet” side of that change: Everyone you know works in agriculture. Experts are predicting massive unemployment. Some are even whispering that Universal Basic Income will be unavoidable.
Instead, what happened was those “jobless” masses moved into manufacturing, then into service, and/or into tech or finance. The same thing happened with the Industrial Revolution, when factory work replaced cottage industries.
“Oh, but those were manual labor jobs, a much different animal,” I again hear you say,
Fair enough — but this same fear resurfaced in the digital revolution, which not only didn’t happen that long ago, but which is so recent as to be still ongoing.
Just like with AI today, people feared that computers would eliminate huge numbers of jobs, especially clerical, administrative, and factory roles. Secretaries, accountants, and typists were thought to be particularly at risk due to automation of tasks like data entry and calculations. Businesses would no longer need as many human workers—not due to mechanized labor, but due to greater efficiency and digitization, leading to widespread unemployment.
But while some jobs were lost or transformed, the rise of computers created far more jobs in IT, programming, cybersecurity, network administration, and tech support. Entire new industries emerged, including software development, web design, and digital marketing.
IT jobs — something that didn’t even exist before computers — became one of the largest employment sectors in the world.
Who could have seen that coming, in the 1970s or 1980s? Picture it: It’s 1977 and you just left the movie theater showing of Star Wars, so technology is on your mind. Your friend Fred says, “Man, computers are going to take our jobs!” And you reply, “Hey, Fred, don’t worry, because careers you’ve never even heard of and can’t imagine existing will rise up as sources of mass employment!”
Fred would have thought you were a lunatic.
But you’d have been right, because you’d have observed the long-running historical pattern.
Technological progress doesn’t eliminate jobs. It changes them. It frees people from repetitive, exhausting, or menial tasks and opens up new fields that were unimaginable before.
"But This Time Is Different!" (Hint: It Never Is.)
Yes, AI is “different” in many ways and because it can seemingly act as an agent, it appears — superficially — to finally be the “real” deal breaker. AI isn’t just replacing muscle power like machines did — it’s replacing cognitive labor. And that changes everything!
I agree it’s harder to envision the form things take on “the other side of the AI revolution.” I do understand where this concern is coming from.
But again, consider the recent digital revolution: The internet didn’t exist a few decades ago. Now it’s a massive employment sector. Who could have predicted jobs like YouTuber, app developer, or cybersecurity analyst in the 1980s?
Yet here we are.
History shows that new technologies always create entirely new job sectors. And it’s precisely because we can’t yet envision “the other side” that things appear scary. We see what’s disappearing, but not what’s being built — because (spoiler) it hasn’t been built yet.
Yes, AI will eliminate some jobs, obviously — but a few new ones that come to mind are AI development, AI maintenance, AI training, AI ethics, human-AI collaboration, and (undoubtedly) countless other new industries (some of which will only be distantly related to AI) that we cannot yet predict.
The fear that AI will make human work obsolete follows the same flawed logic that predicted mass unemployment from past technological breakthroughs.
The Free Market Always Finds a Way
The reason this fear never pans out is simple: the free market is dynamic. It adapts in real-time. It responds to new needs and innovates in real time. It is continually evolving through a process of creative destruction.
Yes, automation makes some jobs obsolete. But it also makes things cheaper and more efficient, which increases demand and productivity, which leads to new industries, new services, and new jobs. The same technology that “eliminates” work also creates entirely new fields of employment.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Future of Work
This is where it gets interesting. I suspect one reason new jobs keep emerging is tied to something deeper: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
New technology shifts us up the hierarchy. When machines take over basic tasks, humans are able to dedicate more focus toward higher-order needs: education, creativity, personal fulfillment. The jobs of the future won’t be about survival. They’ll be about purpose.
Just as industrialization freed people from subsistence farming and automation freed people from menial labor, AI will open doors to careers we haven’t even imagined yet. AI won’t eliminate work — it will elevate it.
What About Universal Basic Income (UBI)?
Some argue that automation will be so extensive that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) will be necessary to support the millions left without work. This, as we just discussed, falsely assumes that work itself will cease to exist.
Again, not to beat a dead steam engine, but every major technological shift has created new industries, not just replaced old ones. We keep repeating the same flawed assumptions because we can see exactly what is being replaced — but only the most visionary (and sometimes not even them) can imagine what will be created.
UBI is unlikely to be a necessity unless we all just quit trying. Or worse, if overzealous politicians make the mistake of incentivizing us not to try by introducing UBI — which could, ironically, turn our worst fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As automation increases, the demand for human creativity, emotional intelligence, and high-level problem-solving will only expand. The idea that humans will sit idle while robots do all the work misreads human nature — we are goal-driven creatures who will always strive to create, improve, and solve problems.
What Happens Next?
If history is any guide, AI and robotics will follow the same pattern every other major technological advancement has:
They’ll eliminate low-skill, repetitive jobs — freeing up humans for more complex, valuable work.
They’ll create entire new industries — things we haven’t even conceived yet.
They’ll make things cheaper and more efficient — driving economic growth and new employment opportunities.
They’ll shift human labor up the value chain — toward creativity, complex problem-solving, and interpersonal roles.
In short, there will still be work. It will just look different.
So yes, AI will shake up some industries, maybe even faster than past disruptions — but adaptation will happen, just as it always has.
So no, the AI/robot economy isn’t going to render humans obsolete. It’s just going to give us better, more meaningful jobs. And in the process, it will do what every other major technological shift has done:
It will make life easier.
As always, Jason can layer a concept better than the characters in a Taylor Steel saga, great read.