The Future of Work: AI's Impact on Jobs by 2045 and Which Careers Might Survive

AI Will Wipe Out Most Jobs by 2045 — a Few May Still Survive

By 2045, robots and artificial intelligence could render most human jobs obsolete, according to Adam Dorr, director of research at the RethinkX think tank. In a recent interview, Dorr warned that machines are advancing so rapidly that within a generation, they'll be able to perform virtually every job humans do, at a lower cost and with equal or superior quality.

As AI and robotics rapidly advance, experts say societies must rethink how work, value, and purpose are defined in a world with fewer human jobs.

Which Jobs Will Survive?

Dorr believes a narrow set of roles may survive the AI takeover, especially those grounded in human connection, trust, and ethical complexity. He pointed to sex workers, sports coaches, politicians, and ethicists as examples of jobs that could remain relevant. However, he emphasized that there are nowhere near enough of these occupations to employ billions of people.

The AI Takeover Debate

The debate on AI's impact on jobs is heating up among experts:

• Geoffrey Hinton, often called the "Godfather of AI," warned that "mundane intellectual labor" is most at risk.
• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within five years.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta's Yann LeCun argue that AI will transform jobs, not eliminate them entirely.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes new jobs will emerge, even if they look "sillier and sillier" over time.

Preparing for the Future

Dorr argued that the looming upheaval could lead either to mass inequality or to what he called "super-abundance" — a society where human needs are met without traditional labor. Achieving the latter will require bold experiments in how we define work, value, and ownership.

"This could be one of the most amazing things to ever happen to humanity," he said — but only if we're ready.