01 May 2025 6 min read

Will AI Replace Jobs? What We Need to Know About the Future of the Workforce

This article explores how AI is already affecting the workforce and what this could mean for children’s education, wellbeing and futures. It includes practical steps for parents, educators, and policymakers to help prepare for the changes ahead.

AI is already reshaping the workforce, and while we can’t predict every outcome, we can be confident that today’s children will grow up in a world fundamentally different to the one that today’s adults were educated and trained for.

This is not just about future careers; it’s about how job disruption will affect family stability, education, and children's wellbeing.

This article offers an overview of the shifts already underway, cautions against short-term thinking, and explains why a longer-term perspective must be prioritised.

We provide early but essential recommendations for parents, educators, and policy leaders, with a clear message: much broader discourse and action are urgently needed.

Our suggestions will not be enough to overcome the challenges we face, but they are critical first steps at a time when delay is no longer an option.

Here are our key points. If you have time, we invite you to read on for more in-depth information:

AI is already displacing jobs and reshaping industries, including creative and knowledge-based roles.
The pace of change means we must plan for the future, not just respond to the present.
Children are uniquely affected by job disruption and need education that prepares them for a very different future.
We must ask better questions: not just "Will AI replace jobs?" but where, when, and with what consequences?
Early action from parents, educators, and policy leaders is vital. Delay increases the risk of unpreparedness and harm.
Stronger governance frameworks, both in education and broader AI deployment, must become a priority.

In More Depth: Will AI Replace Jobs? What We Need to Know About the Future of the Workforce

It's important to acknowledge that discussions about AI and employment can often swing between extremes. While some narratives portray AI as poised to take over every single aspect of work very soon, others dismiss it entirely as overblown hype.

We aim to take a balanced view: recognising both what AI cannot currently do, and what it is rapidly becoming capable of. In this article, our focus is on the longer-term trajectory of AI and employment, and on constructive, clear-sighted responses to a changing world - not panic or pessimism.

Why This Question Matters

The question "Will AI replace jobs?" is often met with polarised answers. Some dismiss the concern as hype, pointing to AI's current limitations. Others warn of a total transformation of the entire workforce very soon.

But we don’t necessarily have to know whether AI will replace every job. Instead, it can be helpful to focus on how the trajectory of AI development is likely to affect the systems and structures our children will inherit.

This conversation shouldn't just be about employment statistics. Children need to be supported in preparing for a future where flexibility, resilience, and understanding technology are not luxuries but necessities.

AI and the Workforce: What’s Already Happening

Even with its current limitations, AI is already displacing or reshaping roles. For example:

Design, writing, and customer service are seeing rapid automation of tasks once considered human-only.
Administrative work and even entry-level coding are being quietly transformed by AI tools.
Freelance and creative work is under pressure, often devalued by low-cost AI-generated alternatives.

These shifts are not hypothetical. For families, this can mean career changes, reduced job security, and financial strain – all of which affect children directly.

These changes are accelerating because AI systems can now perform many cognitive tasks at scale, with speed, consistency, and low cost.

While they may not match human nuance or creativity in every case, for many industries, the economic incentive to automate outweighs the desire to retain human input. This is especially true in sectors where cost-cutting, efficiency, or volume of output are prioritised.

The Danger of Short-Term Thinking

Today’s AI cannot fully replace a human workforce. But it would be short-sighted to stop the conversation there.

AI is improving rapidly, driven by strong economic incentives and competitive pressures across both the private and public sectors – a trend that shows no signs of slowing

We should not assume that current limitations will remain static, as this can lead to a false sense of security. We must plan not based on what AI can't do yet, but on what it is likely to be on track to achieve.

Short-term thinking, including dismissing all AI as simply ‘hype’, risks leaving education systems outdated, job training ineffective, and children unprepared.

Why This Matters for Children

Job loss is not just an adult issue. Children are affected in multiple, interconnected ways:

Family stability: Sudden changes in parental employment can cause stress, uncertainty, and even trauma.
Educational misalignment: Children may be educated for roles that won’t exist, or underprepared for those that will.
Mental and emotional development: Witnessing societal upheaval without being given tools to understand or influence it can lead to anxiety and disengagement.

Children need more than career advice. They need education that reflects reality, builds agency, and respects their capacity to think critically about the future.

Questions We Should Be Asking

As well as asking "Will AI replace jobs?" we should be asking:

Where should we allow AI to replace human roles, and where should we preserve human input?
What are the hidden costs of removing people from certain professions?
What is the value of human judgment, care, and creativity, especially in sectors like education and health?
Are we redesigning education and public policy fast enough to reflect what’s coming?

What We Can Do Now

While no single intervention will be enough, there are meaningful steps we can all take to reduce risks and improve readiness.

The following suggestions offer a starting point for parents, educators, policy leaders, and members of the public who want to engage constructively with this issue.

For Parents:

Talk with children about AI in a balanced, age-appropriate way.
Encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and adaptability.
Advocate for schools to update curricula to include AI literacy and ethical reasoning.
Utilise The Safe AI For Children Alliance (SAIFCA) website for a growing bank of information and advice on children’s AI safety and futures.

For Educators:

Begin embedding AI awareness into all subject areas (not just computing).
Equip children with skills that complement AI, like collaboration, moral reasoning, and complex problem-solving.
Be open about the limitations and capabilities of current systems, and encourage inquiry about potential trajectories.
Ensure that safeguarding policies and practices are updated to protect children from AI-related harms.
Explore the impact of AI in age-appropriate ways – for example, the potential impact on democracy, benefits in healthcare, personalised education, deep fakes, disinformation, and misuse.
Advocate for the importance of both AI education and the necessity for foresight and research into how education can better equip children for an AI-driven future.

For Policy Leaders:

Fund research into AI’s impact on children and families, and ensure findings shape education policy.
Mandate AI literacy across school systems, in close collaboration with trusted child-focused experts and organisations.
Create guidance and enforceable governance for ethical AI deployment in any system or service affecting children (e.g. education, health, welfare).
Prioritise safe AI through better governance, in collaboration with reputable dedicated organisations such as The Future Society and the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI.

For Everyone:

Engage with developments in AI, AI governance, and AI risks and benefits. Understanding and advocacy are powerful forces. We recommend the following as reputable sources of information, and will add to this list over time:

Governance and System-Level Responses

We support calls for clearer and stronger governance frameworks.

Within education, this includes:

National AI education strategies that integrate ethical, social, and psychological dimensions, not just technical skills.
Public oversight mechanisms for AI used in schools and educational technology platforms.

In AI deployment more broadly:

Stronger governance of AI systems that influence employment, recruitment, and workforce planning.
Transparent reporting on job displacement and algorithmic decision-making.

While these measures are not sufficient on their own, they are vital steps in laying the groundwork for more responsible, child-centred AI governance.

Conclusion: Urgency Without Panic

Children today are not just entering a changing workforce – they are inheriting the consequences of our decisions about how to manage that change.

We must stop treating AI and job loss as isolated adult issues, and we most certainly should not dismiss the risk as ‘hype’.

This issue is shaping children's realities now, and will define their futures. The suggestions we offer here will not solve everything – but they represent what we can and must do immediately.

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Most importantly, we must elevate this issue to the priority level it deserves. Children cannot wait for hindsight. They need our foresight – and our courage – now.