Will AI take my job?
Some jobs, yes. Your job, probably not — but the shape of entry-level work is changing fast.
This one is not paranoid. US entry-level job postings have dropped roughly 35% in 18 months, and workers aged 22–25 in AI-exposed fields have seen noticeable employment drops while senior workers in the same fields are stable. The IMF's managing director literally called it "a tsunami hitting the labor market." You are allowed to be worried.
But the full picture is less apocalyptic than the headlines. The World Economic Forum projects ~150 million jobs displaced by 2027 — and ~170 million new ones created. The net is growth, but it's lumpy: routine, repeatable, entry-level work (data entry, basic coding, first-line customer service) is shrinking fastest, while AI-adjacent roles (anyone who can work with AI, not just compete against it) are exploding. The workers getting hurt aren't "humans" broadly — they're people doing work AI happens to be good at, who haven't yet learned to use AI themselves.
The question flipped. It's no longer "will AI replace me?" It's "will I be replaced by someone who uses AI better than I do?" That's actually easier to act on. The moat isn't refusing AI — it's being the person on your team who knows what to ask it and what to question when it answers.
AI is coming for every job.
AI is reshaping the bottom rungs of the ladder. The people who climb fastest are the ones who learn to work with it.
- Pick one AI tool and get embarrassingly good at it. Depth beats breadth on a résumé.
- Build one thing publicly — a site, a project, a newsletter — that uses AI as part of the workflow.
- Learn the non-automatable layer of your field: judgment, taste, client relationships, ethics.
- Ask Otis: "What entry-level jobs in [my field] are growing because of AI, not shrinking?"
Still sitting with something?
Otis can get specific about your situation, your field, your campus.