Tipping the Scale: When AI Threatens Upscale Jobs

Imagine that you’ve worked hard to climb the corporate ladder, earning a degree from a top university, and landing a high-paying job in your field. You feel secure in your position, confident that your skills and expertise make you indispensable. But then, along comes artificial intelligence (AI), threatening to tip the scale and disrupt the job market in ways you never imagined.

The startling truth is that AI poses a risk not just to low-skilled, blue-collar workers, but also to a substantial number of highly paid, white-collar professionals, according to recent findings by the Pew Research Center.

The research revealed that the higher the education, the higher the risk of AI exposure. In fact, employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher (27%) are more than twice as likely to experience significant exposure to AI compared to those with just a high school diploma (12%). In 2022, nearly one in five US workers experienced the impact of AI in their jobs.

The Pew report corroborated a 2020 study by Stanford University’s Michael Webb who examined the correlation between AI-associated patents and job specifications. He discovered that employees with advanced educational qualifications and higher earnings are more susceptible to AI than their counterparts with lower levels of education and income.