“It Is Inevitable”: 27 Professions That May Soon Disappear, As Shared By People In This Thread
Interview
We like to think of ourselves as irreplaceable. Especially when it comes to the jobs we do. But with our lifestyles changing, technological advancement broadening our horizons and just in the last year, artificial intelligence proving it can do a whole lot more than we gave it credit for, we start to wonder.
What if some professions we can’t imagine our world without right now will cease to exist in the very near future?
Well, people in this Ask Reddit thread are now weighing in on the possibility of that happening by sharing the professions that they believe will become obsolete sooner than we think.
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“A number of professions are at risk of becoming obsolete in the future due to automation and technological advances,” Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts with over 20 years of experience empowering leaders and organizations to avoid business disasters, told Bored Panda.
“For example, jobs that involve routine tasks and data entry may be replaced by software and algorithms. Some manual labor jobs may also be replaced by robots or machines,” Dr. Tsipursky explained.
“Additionally, as more and more transactions and communication move online, there may be a decrease in the need for certain in-person service jobs,” Dr. Tsipursky added.
Tiktoker
Twitter employee
“Another way that technology can contribute to the obsolescence of certain professions is by making certain skills or knowledge less relevant,” Dr. Tsipursky continued. “For example, as online resources become more widely available and easy to access, there may be a decrease in the demand for certain jobs that involve providing information or education, such as librarians or encyclopedia writers.”
Travel agent, idk why those are still a thing
Some people cannot access or even know how to use the internet but want to book holidays. Also it can help to speak to an adviser about a holiday to give you more ideas.
Weather reporters, since eventually so many people will just be looking at it on their phones, that the demand for weather stations will be so low that it's just not worth it anymore.
Moreover, according to Dr. Tsipursky, there are certain skills and knowledge that are likely to remain valuable in the long term, even as technology and other factors change.
For example, creative thinking and problem-solving skills. “These skills are likely to remain valuable as they can be applied in a wide range of fields and situations,” Dr. Tsipursky said.
Communication and interpersonal skills are also here to stay because “the ability to effectively communicate and work with others will likely remain important in many professions,” the disaster avoidance expert explained.
Drive thru workers. MC D's autonomous setup will be industry wide.
This is awful. Siri is powered by the financial muscle of Apple and it still can't understand my accent.
Why even the obsession with drive-thrus? Here in Germany, the concept practically does not exist outside the fastfood industry. Where is the actual reason for drive-thru pharmacies, ATMs or even liquor stores? Germany is said to be car centered, but in that regard, the US beat us hands down...
As a disabled person who can still drive safely, it makes life a lot easier sometimes if someone hands you what you need through the window without the need to stand up (or feel the cold, because honestly 💯 agreed that weather is at least half of it) To be fair, drive through liquor stores are still weird to me personally, because they are not allowed in my state, but I bet the logic is the same.
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My husband seems to believe that all who don’t get an education to get out of those jobs are dispensable. We argue about the subject heatedly! People are stuck in such jobs out of necessity, cannot help being in poverty, high living costs, the dismal decrease of living standards, the middle class disappearing. In Canada, a universal income will likely be implemented because there won’t be jobs. Sadly, with corporate greed/automation, there won’t be a lot of customers either. It may be the demise of our civilization, or the emergence of agrarian societies.
Oh gawd, I hope not! I recently had my first experience with one of these. It did not understand me, so I had to wait for a real person. This took so long that the absolute tool behind me started blowing his horn and screaming. I don't know what kind of person acts that way over McD's. The dude was lucky my husband was in the car to keep me inside. Well, he must have had issues with the speaker as well, by the time I paid for and got my food, he still had not come around that corner. If I was alone, I would have went all the way around again and parked next to him and just laid on my horn.
🤣🤣🤣 Oh, the joy of a good revenge honk. I also would have wanted to drive around again just for kicks. Your hubby sounds like a chill dude
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Recently we (partner and I) stopped at a well known fast food outlet that has the screens you input your order on, after spending ages to get what we wanted ordered and it didn't even include a burger, the machine kicked up a message saying it couldn't deal with the order so a member of staff had to come from behind the counter to try again for us and had to do sub menus etc just to get the order in....
Car salesmen. Yes, because of the apps like Carvanna, but also because car companies are actually searching and experimenting with ways to improve the process because people don't want to work with sales people anymore. I worked for BMW for some time and I saw the things they are trying first hand.
In the US and it would be really nice to have a more straightforward way to buy a car, regardless of how it happens. (For any not familiar with the system, we do have listed prices, but those can be negotiated and historically men tend to get better final prices.)
Local radio DJ.
Outside of *very* small micro-markets, hasn't this already happened? Clear Channel (and Sinclair, I believe) bought up most, if not all, of the large regional stations since the early '90's. They have worked their way down to progressively smaller stations. College stations were being bought up last decade.
Dr. Tsipursky also named adaptability and flexibility as something that will stay valuable in the future. “Being able to adapt to new situations and learn new things quickly will likely be valuable in an ever-changing world.”
Last but not least is the skill of ethical reasoning and decision-making. “As society becomes more complex, the ability to make ethical and well-informed decisions will likely remain important in many professions,” Dr. Tsipursky concluded.
Factory workers. Robots are gonna replace them soon. People are probably gonna still be doing maintenance on the robots but not working in the factories
Mark my words. Animators. AI will start doing animation work for big companies sucking the people's souls and hard work out of the art form. Just you wait! Why pay people to animate when you can teach AI to draw/create each frame by frame for you at lower cost value.
Yeah it won't be in the NEAR future, but in the future most definitely.
That'd also mean a serious detriment in quality for the genre, though. A lot of those hand-drawn details aided by AI/CG are what make animated media so amazing and full of life.
I'm a Copywriter. I recently found out about ChatGPT. So, probably mine?
I don't think so. Even the best copy generators produce content that needs time-consuming tweaking. In many cases it would have been faster to just write it from scratch. And then there's the campaign development/conception part of a copywriter's job. That takes tons of research, creative thought and collaboration.
It may sadden me to think this, but likely mechanical watch makers.
I love my automatics and my mechanical chronograph, but I don't think the smart watch generation will appreciate the mechanical movements as much as previous Gens
Never gonna happen! Just take a look at famous, successful or rich people. They all wear MECHANICAL watches. Classic never dies, in fact just gets more expensive as they age. Try to find a vintage Omega, Rolex or Tudor under $5000, and they are just a silly example. There are automatic watches that cost more then $100.000.
Branch bankers/tellers. You can deposit and withdraw at an atm now, apply for loans, credit cards, and mortgages online. With apps and online banking you can take care of your stuff in your own house instead of going in.
I don't trust ATM deposits. I once had the machine eat my money and say it wasn't adding it to the account, and it took a long while to ever see that cash again. I am officially paranoid.
probably stock photographer, now with AI-generated pictures promising to replace most of that.
My job. I'm a machine operator. Automation will take over.
Underwriters honestly. The entire job will be reduced to a series of algorithms that will be automatically accepted if within certain ranges. Anything beyond the ranges will just be declined.
we have this already in SA. Most of our insurance companies have apps. Latest one you just walk around your car doing a pano or video and they give you a quote which you accept. It then asks for credit card details. Done. It's great. no talking to human idiot call centre people.
Diesel mechanic and not long after that petrol. I’d definitely say in 50 years most people will have electric vehicles with diesel and petrol cars being known as ‘classic cars’
not in africa. Our strongest economy (SA) has major problems supplying electricity merely to citizens and businesses; forget cars for now.
Truck driver. I'm not an Elon Musk Stan. Some company is going to make self-driving trucks and put that industry out of business. It is inevitable.
Again this depends on country. You need good infrastructure and trustworthy roads. Our roads have lots of potholes which requires an intelligent driver to avoid.
Translator. This profession already consists of computer translation editing, and with all the advanced technologies it will be more and more common. Pretty sure, in a few years you won't need one to translate documents.
Accounting. The job will still exist but there will be much less demand for accountants as entry level positions are automated and mid-tier positions are held by people already in the industry.
not at all. As our economy grows and people need to do tax returns, there will be more demand.
Software developers & testers since machine learning trained bots can already write decent amount of code now. Imagine in 5 to 10 years…
I am not convinced by this. As a programmer, I want to be able to strictly control what my app does. I do not want drag and drop code blocks. I do not want inexplicable crashes from objects I have not coded myself. I do not want backdoors. Forget it. I barely trust things that let me drag and drop UI elements. Never mind "hey siri make me an app that does xyz"
They are automating a lot of management these days. Kind of weird people used to think of robots like personal slaves but now it’s the other way around
I'm not aware of any management automation. What does this refer to?
In 2123, they're going to laugh at this list the same way we're laughing at the 1923 future predictions list.
If I'm reading the vibe of this right... everything? We'll see. Every decade has its fears, jobs declining because of automation is just the newest.
Yup. Workers being made redundant has always been a thing...but just like jobs disappear new ones are created too.
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I think most of this is just hype. Working in IT, computers are way too stupid to be trusted with jobs that involve movement. I'd never trust a robot to maintain my garden, or clean my house. Roomba notwithstanding. There's more to it than just vacuuming the floor or mowing the lawn. And that's a low-level job.
And yet we are told to continue making babies... more unemployed humans, you mean?
They missed the most obvious.... Ethics professor. Have you watched the news lately and seen what kind of @ssholes are running this planet?
I don't know, there are still plenty of people interested in older things. My mom just got herself a new record player. People in her area still don't get good service for a lot of streams, digital services, cells, etc. Recently she ordered something online and the delivery driver ignored HER directions in favor of GoogleMaps. The driver got his truck stuck in a swamp and had to walk the rest of the way to the farm. Lots of people are pushing back against glitchy technology, in favor of human-to-human services. People still pay a premium for local/handmade goods/services. I'm not sure where we will be....
I swear the will one-day make a scanner that can diagnose anything and everything and an advancement from that you will just walk through something and get an injection to fix it kind of like Idiocracy
Automation is a serious issue. It should make life easier but it doesn’t and it will wreck the economy as more people will be without a job.
It's not perfect, but it is highly efficient and easier for most. People will need to be trained on a different set of skills, like those used to service the machines.
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Here's one - exchange student programs. With the ability to text, video call, audio call all the time students can't totally immerse themselves.
This list isn't about whether machines or computers will be able to do something better than a human can. It's about whether it will become more profitable to give these tasks to a computer or machine. At least, that's what the economic model that humanity has been following for thousands of years will lead to. And if our economic model doesn't change, the future will just lead to immense human suffering because not everyone can make money by making social media posts.
Shame politicians are not on the list. they know how to take but never how to give to the people...except debt, thanks to taxes
But as humans, are we really going to stop MAKING art and flying airplanes and using machinery? Stop fixing cars and correcting math? Let me know when the machines can give birth for me or grow my amputated limbs back. Otherwise I think people LIKE to do stuff and being around others doing stuff.
Another "profession" that might disappear is ordained ministers. I'm not referring to the ones who got their "degree" out of a cereal box either. I speaking of people who went to college and grad school and are trying to do the job properly.
I really hope once we can sue those damn AI programs that "make" ""art"" so that wont be a problem anymore
The future is going to be (and already is to a point) a cold, cold place if this happens (which it probably will). Next, there will be those at the top saying 'ordinary' peeps need to limit their procreation, or even push for mandatory contraception, as a severe lack of jobs put a strain on the current population. I'm glad I'm near retirement, ugh.
In 2123, they're going to laugh at this list the same way we're laughing at the 1923 future predictions list.
If I'm reading the vibe of this right... everything? We'll see. Every decade has its fears, jobs declining because of automation is just the newest.
Yup. Workers being made redundant has always been a thing...but just like jobs disappear new ones are created too.
Load More Replies... I think most of this is just hype. Working in IT, computers are way too stupid to be trusted with jobs that involve movement. I'd never trust a robot to maintain my garden, or clean my house. Roomba notwithstanding. There's more to it than just vacuuming the floor or mowing the lawn. And that's a low-level job.
And yet we are told to continue making babies... more unemployed humans, you mean?
They missed the most obvious.... Ethics professor. Have you watched the news lately and seen what kind of @ssholes are running this planet?
I don't know, there are still plenty of people interested in older things. My mom just got herself a new record player. People in her area still don't get good service for a lot of streams, digital services, cells, etc. Recently she ordered something online and the delivery driver ignored HER directions in favor of GoogleMaps. The driver got his truck stuck in a swamp and had to walk the rest of the way to the farm. Lots of people are pushing back against glitchy technology, in favor of human-to-human services. People still pay a premium for local/handmade goods/services. I'm not sure where we will be....
I swear the will one-day make a scanner that can diagnose anything and everything and an advancement from that you will just walk through something and get an injection to fix it kind of like Idiocracy
Automation is a serious issue. It should make life easier but it doesn’t and it will wreck the economy as more people will be without a job.
It's not perfect, but it is highly efficient and easier for most. People will need to be trained on a different set of skills, like those used to service the machines.
Load More Replies... Here's one - exchange student programs. With the ability to text, video call, audio call all the time students can't totally immerse themselves.
This list isn't about whether machines or computers will be able to do something better than a human can. It's about whether it will become more profitable to give these tasks to a computer or machine. At least, that's what the economic model that humanity has been following for thousands of years will lead to. And if our economic model doesn't change, the future will just lead to immense human suffering because not everyone can make money by making social media posts.
Shame politicians are not on the list. they know how to take but never how to give to the people...except debt, thanks to taxes
But as humans, are we really going to stop MAKING art and flying airplanes and using machinery? Stop fixing cars and correcting math? Let me know when the machines can give birth for me or grow my amputated limbs back. Otherwise I think people LIKE to do stuff and being around others doing stuff.
Another "profession" that might disappear is ordained ministers. I'm not referring to the ones who got their "degree" out of a cereal box either. I speaking of people who went to college and grad school and are trying to do the job properly.
I really hope once we can sue those damn AI programs that "make" ""art"" so that wont be a problem anymore
The future is going to be (and already is to a point) a cold, cold place if this happens (which it probably will). Next, there will be those at the top saying 'ordinary' peeps need to limit their procreation, or even push for mandatory contraception, as a severe lack of jobs put a strain on the current population. I'm glad I'm near retirement, ugh.
