The revolution with GenAI has been quite the ride since 2023 and quite a few people have been concerned that their employment status might be in jeopardy. I can certainly understand that, especially in light of the tight budgets, widespread layoffs, and executive views on AI technologies.

There was an article recently talking about AI taking over some jobs with a few tips on how to stay employed. While tech workers weren't mentioned as being vulnerable, repetitive data-heavy jobs, such as data entry clerks, telemarketers, and cashiers were. That last one is interesting. Lots of companies have tried to use automated checkout stations, but this hasn't necessarily eliminated cashiers. Maybe there are fewer, but lots of companies in the US have rolled back some of these efforts as fraud, mistakes, and slower checkouts have been an issue.

The data-heavy group might include ETL developers for sure. I suspect this is an area AI is well suited to help build flows, map data, and handle updates more easily. This won't eliminate the need for an ETL developer, but it might reduce the number needed and certainly reduce the skill level required to code data movement scripts.

There are lots of jobs that might not be vulnerable, including tech people who work on AI, cybersecurity people, and others. I think DBAs aren't likely to go, though perhaps we will need fewer DBAs and developers over time as AI models become more capable of repeating work.

The tips for navigating this new world aren't anything different than my advice for years. Improve your skills, both technical and soft. Learn new technologies, but more importantly, show that you add business value with your work. Don't depend on someone else to tell you what to do. Learn what things are important to your boss and organization and tackled those things early and often. Work to be an effective and efficient worker wherever you can and learn about your business. Those skills and that knowledge make you more valuable than most AI models.