These are the jobs AI can’t replace

It’s impossible to predict exactly how AI will impact the job market. But it is possible to imagine where the does-it-all technology would fall short. Some jobs require creativity that AI can’t match, empathy or sensitivity that it can’t provide or a human touch it can’t give, both figuratively and literally. 

Artificial intelligence can’t replace every job out there. Here are a few it definitely won’t be taking away. 

Tech jobs that can’t be replaced by AI 

Software engineers 

You might think that technical fields would be especially vulnerable to AI as it becomes more capable and advanced. Artificial intelligence can code, test and debug, after all. But engineering is more than tinkering with circuit boards or using Java – it’s an inherently creative field. And for all that AI technologies can accomplish in ensuring efficiency and accuracy in the most complex operations, it can’t ideate the way humans can. It won’t produce new ideas about products or web applications, and it can’t understand how humans think, see or feel about using them. So, engineers, your jobs are more than likely safe.

Strategic roles 

Jobs that require deep thinking, cognitive ability, complex decision-making and interpersonal relationships will continue to require literal humans. Strategic roles are what give companies direction, and the ability to provide that expertise comes with years of experience in a given field. It also requires an understanding of human emotion and the ability to be keyed into how potential customers or competitors will react to strategic choices, two skills AI doesn’t have. The even better news about strategic roles is that they’re often the launching point for job creation. And in the most symbiotic way, most of those jobs will end up requiring a candidate who’s capable of deep thinking, cognitive ability, complex decision-making and interpersonal relationships. 

Creative jobs that AI can’t replace 

Writer 

As a writer myself, I hope and pray my job will never be replaced by a generative AI tool. But I also know that it won’t, and that’s because I use and interact with those tools all the time. Generative AI tools can make a writer’s life easier, but their output isn’t the same as what a human can produce. The tools on the market are a double-edged sword: they can make a writer’s life easier by suggesting an endless stream of ideas or shifts in tone to make words more enticing or approachable, but they can’t replace writers, since they can’t come up with original ideas unprompted or spit out truly beautiful prose. They can, and do, however, use the word “delve” at a notable rate, subtly shouting to readers that the “writer” behind what they’re consuming isn’t really a writer, after all.

Anything else in the arts 

There’s a pretty hot debate about whether AI can produce true art, or even something resembling art. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, art and imagery have been two fields in which generative AI tools ave struggled to excel in so far. 

While we have moved past the AI imagery with dozens of fingers on a single hand, it would still be a stretch to say what artificial intelligence can produce is truly art. What AI-adjacent tools like 3D modeling and solutions like the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s Shape & Style virtual design tool can accomplish is turning something like Leonardo da Vinci’s centuries-old drawings into virtual renderings and, eventually, museum exhibits. 

Medical jobs that AI can’t replace 

Physical Therapists 

AI can be easily leveraged in the healthcare industry – just look to precision medicine – but it can’t replace the field entirely. Imagine consulting an artificial intelligence tool for your physical therapy needs. A robot can create an assessment tool for PTs to use, sure, but the job itself requires a lot of hands-on care, which technology simply can’t provide.  

Nurses, physicians and surgeons, oh my!

This one feels like it doesn’t need too much explaining. Would you want a robot drawing your blood? Robots can be used for surgeries, but they’re still controlled by a human. Diagnostics can be done by a machine, but that same machine can’t provide any sort of bedside manner. It’s more than likely we as humans will continue to prefer in-person practitioners, medical workers we can shake hands with, and healthcare professionals with a literal human touch. 

The top jobs that AI can’t replace: Person-to-person roles

Customer Service 

We’ve all experienced the mind-numbing exercise of interacting with an AI customer service chatbot. We have all raised our voices slightly and enunciated “live agent” into the receiving end of our iPhones, desperate for human connection and a live being that can help us on our not-really-that-complicated quest. Automation may be achievable by a chatbot, but deep empathy is not. But the voice on the other end of the phone might just be able to provide that while resolving your problems. 

Educators

Whether it’s educating five-year-olds or 500 teenagers, teaching needs humans. AI doesn’t have the emotional intelligence or empathy for building relationships with students, understanding them or identifying their unique needs and learning styles. It also doesn’t bode well for the nostalgia that comes with a teacher helping you uncover a passion you didn’t know you had, or discover a field of study you’d never heard of previously. In this space, AI systems would be best used for something like automated grading, but even that has its critics. 

So, what jobs are most at risk from AI?

Positions that can be automated are at the highest risk of being replaced by AI. But even if you work in a role that can be touched by automation, it doesn’t mean your job is going away. Take delivery drivers, for example. Can self-driving cars replace humans on the road? Sure, but so far, the driverless car venture hasn’t gone well. 

Read the tech industry news for five minutes, and you’ll be inundated with predictions about all the jobs that will eventually disappear when AI takes over. What they often don’t mention is that for most jobs that AI displaces, other jobs are created: engineers need to train AI models, marketers need to run campaigns to create buzz around them, salespeople and business development representatives need to generate demand and get customers to buy them. Businesses need humans, whether they like it or not.

The bottom line: AI isn’t really taking over jobs

Much as the hype on the internet would leave you to believe, artificial intelligence doesn’t have the capacity now to simply replace human employees in most jobs. AI systems don’t have the ability to do jobs the same way humans can, and they also probably shouldn’t be allowed to in the first place. They’re not perfect, hallucinating almost regularly and spitting out strange answers to user queries (care to eat rocks or glue cheese on your pizza?). From an ethical standpoint, AI job displacement and Corporate Social Responsibility guidelines don’t quite go together. 

AI technologies have a place in the world of business, to be sure. Coupled with existing, trusted technologies, they can deliver results. Just look to Dassault Systèmes’ recent partnership with French AI giant Mistral AI: together, they’re making Mistral’s LLM available as a service and hosting it on the sovereign cloud. Doing so makes AI more accessible for more businesses and allows them to add it to their business toolkit, supplementary human workers without doing away with them. 

Continuing to develop AI systems will be important for the future. But so will critical thinking, emotional intelligence and ethical judgment, three qualities artificial intelligence can’t provide. The future also needs individuals interested in exploring diverse career paths and professions. The society we’ve built has been based on centuries of human collaboration, and while emerging technologies have taken us further than most of our ancestors could have ever imagined, the world depends on continued reliance on humans, not robots.