AI takes aim at California’s jobs, report says

It predicts 321,900 positions in the state are at high risk of being replaced by the technology

“This will change our world.” That’s Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ assessment of CHATGPT, a chatbot that gives strikingly human-like responses to user queries. Developed by San Francisco-based Openai and backed by Microsoft, it can collate information in seconds that would otherwise take hours to gather.

“Until now, artificial intelligence could read and write, but could not understand the content,” Gates said recently. “The new programs like CHATGPT will make many office jobs more efficient by helping to write invoices or letters.”

Those efficiencies likely will inevitably lead to job losses.

And for those working as a cashier, customer service representative or bookkeeper, they might want to have a backup plan because a new report from Netvouchercodes pegs those as the top three occupations likely to be replaced by AI.

For those living in California it will be a double whammy because it has the largest number of at-risk jobs, the analysis says.

Netvouchercodes compiled data for 199 jobs from each state using usawage.com’s Top 200 Popular Jobs for each state in 2022. CHATGPT was then asked for each job’s relative risk from AI, automation, and the likelihood of AI increasing each job’s productivity.

The report shows 321,900 California jobs are at high risk of being replaced by AI technology while another 1.2 million jobs are at medium risk. In the realm of automation, more than 2 million Golden State jobs are at high risk and nearly 4 million are at medium risk.

Other states ranking high on both lists include Texas, New York, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Netvouchercodes lists the Top 10 U.S. jobs at high risk of being replaced by AI: Cashier (more than 3.3 million); customer service representative (more than 2.7 million), bookkeeper (991,047), IT support technician (690,525), billing clerk (477,349), human resources assistant (384,826), paralegal assistant (336,250), compliance officer (334,340), claims assessor (314,300) and executive assistant (304,678).

The nationwide impact

On a broader scale, Netvouchercodes predicts more than 15.7 million U.S. jobs will use AI to boost productivity, although 19.4 million jobs will be replaced by the technology.

The report cites CHATGPT and Midjourney — which can create graphics, audio and video content based on simple text prompts — as examples of technologies that are rapidly gaining traction in the workplace.

“With driverless vehicles, self-service checkouts and gas stations now the norm, it’s only a matter of time before the robots creep up everywhere,” the report said. “Who needs a sales assistant when you could use a robot who never takes breaks or asks for a pay raise?”

The report doesn’t give a timeline for when all of those jobs could be highjacked by technology, but the numbers indicate heavy employment losses are inevitable.

Andy Wilson, executive director of the Alliance for Socal Innovation,

acknowledged AI and automation have created disruption in the workplace.

“Technical progress always comes with dislocations,” he said. “Think about the Industrial Age and what’s happening in farming today. Today, many farms are using Gps-guided tractors that drive themselves. These kinds of technologies create production gains that ultimately benefit society.”

Wilson said government and educational programs need to be in place to shift workers who are, or will soon be displaced, into jobs that are more secure amid increasing technology and will likely pay better wages.

“It’s incumbent upon government and society to anticipate where the dislocations will be so they can figure out how to redeploy these people for the next generation of employment,” he said.