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Image: Pexels / Olia Danilevich
Over the past few months, I’ve interacted with leaders and organisations that shifted my thinking about the impact of AI in society.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating structural change across the labour market, with implications that extend beyond productivity gains to workforce displacement, skills alignment, and career planning.
While the prevailing narrative suggests that technology-driven job losses will be offset by job creation, emerging evidence indicates a growing imbalance between roles eliminated and those created, particularly in the near to medium term. This dynamic poses material decision-making risk for individuals—especially younger cohorts—selecting fields of study and career paths based on incomplete or outdated information.
Over recent months, sustained analysis of AI adoption trends has highlighted employment disruption as one of the most consequential second-order effects of the technology. The challenge is not solely net job loss, but skills mismatch.
Roles most exposed to automation are often not adjacent, in capability terms, to newly created positions in data, AI, and advanced digital services. As a result, displaced workers face elevated barriers to re-entry into emerging roles without significant retraining.
At a macro level, historical precedent suggests that overall employment levels may stabilise over time as new sectors absorb labour. However, this long-term equilibrium does little to mitigate near-term uncertainty for individuals currently making education and career decisions. For these cohorts, the timing and accessibility of new opportunities are as critical as their eventual existence.
Traditional career advisory models—largely static, publication-driven, and backwards-looking—are increasingly misaligned with the pace of technological change. Artificial intelligence is reshaping occupational demand on a continuous basis, rendering conventional career guides obsolete shortly after release. There is a clear need for a dynamic, continuously updated career framework that reflects real-time developments in technology and labour demand.
Leveraging ongoing engagement with technology leaders, startups, and organisations at the forefront of AI adoption, this initiative aims to translate forward-looking insights into practical guidance. The objective is to narrow information asymmetry by providing direct exposure to emerging roles, required skill sets, and credible career pathways within the technology ecosystem.
The guide will be underpinned by quantitative analysis, including labour market data, hiring trends, and skills demand indicators. By anchoring career guidance in empirical evidence rather than anecdote or hype, the goal is to enable more informed, risk-aware decisions about participation in the future of tech work.
This guide will be the first in a series of information products designed to highlight the value of data. In this case, it’s data that an individual can use for personal advancement. I’m looking forward to engaging with young people who are determined to use new tools to tackle modern challenges.
Wesley Diphoko is a technology analyst and the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.
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