The conversations around AI at the moment are interesting. Academic. Thought-provoking. Posts on LinkedIn discuss job changes and what the future may look like in theoretical terms. The words ‘streamlined’ and ‘automated’ litter the chats between Executives and CEOs. But that seems to be where consideration ends. We are talking about the future, but the very near future. I am invited to discussions about AI impacts which focus on the coming weeks and months, but it begs the question, who is thinking about the future?
A recent World Economic Forum article highlights the impact of AI on entry-level jobs and the results are concerning. Entry-level jobs are often dismissed. Terms such as ‘grunt work’ are used to describe what is subjectively seen as the more tedious end of the job spectrum. However, ‘entry-level’ jobs accurately describe what they are. Entry level. A pathway in. These jobs provide an access point to future career development.
Just this morning, a barista at my gym shared how she has been promoted to Club Services Manager. How did she start her career? Taking and making drinks orders. It was the face-to-face experience in her ‘entry-level’ job that allowed her to hone her customer-service and rapport skills, whilst building foundational understanding of the operational side of the business. That entry-level job is why she has now been promoted. Would she have been offered the much more senior role without her previous two-year’s experience of ‘grunt work’?
In a world where we are over-excited about what AI can do, we don’t seem to be thinking about what it should do. The article from the World Economic Forum shows that AI-powered tools threaten to automate as many roles as they create. Data shows significantly higher impact on white-collar, entry level jobs than on their senior or managerial counterparts. The reality is there are only so many senior jobs. We need entry level work to identify and develop our business skillset and prepare us for our future in work. Many of us will have started our career path experience with bar jobs, waiting tables, answering phones, taking notes. We will have gained so much more from that experience than just doing the job. We’ll have dealt with managers, built team rapport, learnt the necessity of being on time and being a good employee. We’ll have understood what does and doesn’t work for us in the workplace.
When we talk about grunt-work and ‘entry-level’ jobs in such dismissive tones, rushing to hand them over to AI, we seem to be forgetting what the future looks like. When I asked a Professor of AI what would happen to all the people who were in these jobs, he looked at me blankly and said ‘they can do something else’. But the question is, what? It is a huge point of privilege to be able to choose your early career path. Most of us have to put a shift in and build from scratch. The idea of ‘just doing something else’ may seem an obvious option to a Professor with extensive academic credentials, but what of school leavers and young adults new to the world of work? Where will they go?
We have to start thinking about the future we are creating. I am so excited about the potential of AI for identifying and curing disease, reducing the waiting time for medical test results and enhancing human experience. But it feels incredibly short-sighted to remove access to work for thousands, indeed millions of people, without wondering what will happen to them. AI can help us with some of the more tedious work in our lives, but it shouldn’t be replacing humans who need to earn money. We need to ask the bigger question; if AI does all the work, then what happens to the people who can’t? Who pays their bills? Who supports their families? Who gives them a way in to the careers they want to pursue?
We need to be thinking far more about the future. With the World Health Organisation declaring loneliness to be a ‘global healthcare concern’, do I want my friendly gym barista to be replaced by a machine? No. Do I want her pathway to success blocked before she has even started? No. I don’t. Nor should you. Whilst we may be making a few rich individuals richer, we will be plummeting others into poverty, with even less opportunity than they have now. If we don’t start thinking about the future, then AI could create an even bigger divide in our society than already exists. We can get excited about the great in AI and not lose sight of the value of the work, all work, that is rapidly becoming endangered. We have an opportunity to design a brilliant future, aligned with the progress of AI developments, but we have to deliberately create it. We have to consider the future now before the tide of AI enthusiasm sweeps away essential work for many.
Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald is an experienced Clinical Psychologist and Health and Wellbeing Consultant. Stephanie is passionate about workplace wellbeing and strongly believes everyone can and should be happy at work. Stephanie supports companies across all sectors to keep their employees happy, healthy, safe and engaged. Follow her on Instagram @workplace_wellbeing
May 12, 2025
Is anyone really thinking about the future beyond what happens next?
by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Technology, Wellbeing
A recent World Economic Forum article highlights the impact of AI on entry-level jobs and the results are concerning. Entry-level jobs are often dismissed. Terms such as ‘grunt work’ are used to describe what is subjectively seen as the more tedious end of the job spectrum. However, ‘entry-level’ jobs accurately describe what they are. Entry level. A pathway in. These jobs provide an access point to future career development.
Just this morning, a barista at my gym shared how she has been promoted to Club Services Manager. How did she start her career? Taking and making drinks orders. It was the face-to-face experience in her ‘entry-level’ job that allowed her to hone her customer-service and rapport skills, whilst building foundational understanding of the operational side of the business. That entry-level job is why she has now been promoted. Would she have been offered the much more senior role without her previous two-year’s experience of ‘grunt work’?
In a world where we are over-excited about what AI can do, we don’t seem to be thinking about what it should do. The article from the World Economic Forum shows that AI-powered tools threaten to automate as many roles as they create. Data shows significantly higher impact on white-collar, entry level jobs than on their senior or managerial counterparts. The reality is there are only so many senior jobs. We need entry level work to identify and develop our business skillset and prepare us for our future in work. Many of us will have started our career path experience with bar jobs, waiting tables, answering phones, taking notes. We will have gained so much more from that experience than just doing the job. We’ll have dealt with managers, built team rapport, learnt the necessity of being on time and being a good employee. We’ll have understood what does and doesn’t work for us in the workplace.
When we talk about grunt-work and ‘entry-level’ jobs in such dismissive tones, rushing to hand them over to AI, we seem to be forgetting what the future looks like. When I asked a Professor of AI what would happen to all the people who were in these jobs, he looked at me blankly and said ‘they can do something else’. But the question is, what? It is a huge point of privilege to be able to choose your early career path. Most of us have to put a shift in and build from scratch. The idea of ‘just doing something else’ may seem an obvious option to a Professor with extensive academic credentials, but what of school leavers and young adults new to the world of work? Where will they go?
We have to start thinking about the future we are creating. I am so excited about the potential of AI for identifying and curing disease, reducing the waiting time for medical test results and enhancing human experience. But it feels incredibly short-sighted to remove access to work for thousands, indeed millions of people, without wondering what will happen to them. AI can help us with some of the more tedious work in our lives, but it shouldn’t be replacing humans who need to earn money. We need to ask the bigger question; if AI does all the work, then what happens to the people who can’t? Who pays their bills? Who supports their families? Who gives them a way in to the careers they want to pursue?
We need to be thinking far more about the future. With the World Health Organisation declaring loneliness to be a ‘global healthcare concern’, do I want my friendly gym barista to be replaced by a machine? No. Do I want her pathway to success blocked before she has even started? No. I don’t. Nor should you. Whilst we may be making a few rich individuals richer, we will be plummeting others into poverty, with even less opportunity than they have now. If we don’t start thinking about the future, then AI could create an even bigger divide in our society than already exists. We can get excited about the great in AI and not lose sight of the value of the work, all work, that is rapidly becoming endangered. We have an opportunity to design a brilliant future, aligned with the progress of AI developments, but we have to deliberately create it. We have to consider the future now before the tide of AI enthusiasm sweeps away essential work for many.
Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald is an experienced Clinical Psychologist and Health and Wellbeing Consultant. Stephanie is passionate about workplace wellbeing and strongly believes everyone can and should be happy at work. Stephanie supports companies across all sectors to keep their employees happy, healthy, safe and engaged. Follow her on Instagram @workplace_wellbeing