Is a robot going to take my job?
In an age where artificial intelligence is rapidly improving and becoming more prominent in many walks of life – including the workforce – the question is becoming less the stuff of sci-fi and more of a genuine concern for some.
A recent study by researchers at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab using ADP payroll data found employment declined by 6% from 2022 to 2025 among young professionals aged 22 to 25 in occupations most exposed to AI – such as customer support and software development.
Meanwhile, some companies such as IBM, Klarna, Amazon and Block have voiced support for using AI to complete tasks that would otherwise be handled by human workers.
AI expert Tom Miaskiewicz said AI in the workforce is a “complicated story.” Miaskiewicz is the director of Fort Lewis College’s AI Institute, but was not representing the college when he spoke to The Durango Herald.
Junior, white-collar jobs that involve rote tasks are most at risk, he said, whereas roles that involve heavy doses of critical thinking, human judgment, human relationships and creativity are likely safer.
“Jobs that require critical thinking and human judgment are becoming more valuable today, not less,” he said. “… The better way of approaching it is … now that AI’s in the picture, how do these jobs shift, and is there something that we can do better that we haven’t been able to do because we didn’t have this AI capability handling some of that routine work?”
Small, rural cities like Durango may be safer from the AI onslaught than metro areas like Denver, Miaskiewicz said.
“Southwest Colorado has strengths in health care, education, tourism, trades – and some of those areas are less impacted by AI,” he said. “… (But) we still need to prepare our workers and employers so they’re not left behind.”
Miaskiewicz said while knowledge and use of AI can sometimes be a strength for early career workers, he worries overuse of AI in the workplace could cause young professionals to not develop important skills.
“Everybody should define concrete boundaries where AI is used and places where AI is not used, and there are plenty of places where I think AI shouldn’t be used ‒ or at least not as the primary input,” he said.
He said studies have shown some employers who replaced employees with AI came to later regret that decision and rehired their former human workers.
Nate Peach, an economics professor at FLC, said he expects AI will continue to change the workforce and the economic landscape, but he doesn’t think it will cause mass, long-term unemployment or take over a majority of jobs in Durango or nationwide.
He said most jobs require a mix of tasks, and AI is adept at only some of them, such as listing and coding. The technology isn’t as proficient at human-centric tasks like leading a group of people or mentoring others.
“There will certainly be disruption,” he said. “I don’t think the employment mix, in the U.S. or even in Durango in maybe 15 years, will look the same. But I also don’t see a world in which … there’s going to be really high persistent unemployment because of AI in 10 or 15 years, either.”
In some ways, the use of AI in the workplace can increase productivity, which can in turn positively impact the economy, he said.
“It’s making a lot of fields more productive,” he said. “That productivity often results in either providing the thing cheaper, which compels people to consume more of it, or providing it in a better way – higher quality.”
Peach said he worries a little about his own profession as a college professor.
“There’s a lot of things that a professor does that it (AI) can do,” he said.
Two things give him comfort: that artificial intelligence can never quite capture the kind of human mentorship and support a teacher can offer a student, and that AI hasn’t yet reached a level where it can effectively manage itself in a classroom environment.
He uses AI as a tool in his classes, he said, and has seen its limits.
“It needs someone to check in on it, and that gives me comfort,” he said. “… I have to put so many rules and constraints in place that it kind of moves away from being AI – it becomes this very kind of predictable, rote system. … I don’t think it could develop and manage a coherent classroom experience over 16 weeks.”
Respondents to a non-scientific Durango Herald survey shared a range of emotions as to whether AI could one day usurp their jobs, with some having no fear and others feeling more ambivalent.
“AI doesn’t have the human capacities to give original thought,” said one respondent, who works in sales and marketing. “You can sit there and input every human experience you’ve ever had, every connection you’ve made across your entire life, but without the feelings part of it, you lose a lot of the creativity that is needed in my position.”
Another respondent, who also works in marketing, had more worry for their job security.
“It is concerning that AI could take my job because I work in digital marketing,” the respondent wrote. “I worked for a newspaper 20 years ago, so this is not the first time I’ve had to learn new skills and grow with the evolution of professional storytelling. Similar to writing a script on iOS software or Adobe, AI can be a useful tool, but it has to be used wisely.”
A respondent who works as a photographer said the ease with which AI can create images feels like a threat to their role.
“AI can create images in minutes for free, and it’s not good enough now, but it will be soon,” the respondent wrote. “I don’t see it taking all types of photography jobs, but I certainly see it taking commercial work, headshots, advertising photos.”
It’s hard to nail down what AI’s role in the workforce may look like going forward, Miaskiewicz said, because industries, businesses and fields aren’t monolithic when it comes to AI use.
“It’s just so hard to predict in the future where this goes,” he said. “The current trajectory has been more AI capability, but the adoption has been more (nuanced).”
His best piece of advice for the workforce? Hone skills AI doesn’t excel at and tap into humanity.
“This is a moment for exploring what AI can do, just so you can position yourself alongside AI rather than competing against what AI is already good at,” he said. ”… In this situation, I think just being as human as possible matters a lot. … We need to think critically and do the best we can as an individual person to understand the context and prepare ourselves.”
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