Concerns of generative artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the bulk of human jobs is becoming a reality. A growing number of big global tech companies are cutting down their workforce and replacing those jobs with AI to reduce costs. At the same time, more new jobs are being created to develop and utilize AI and information technology. Unemployment of those who fail to adapt to the new AI world will become inevitable, escalating into social issues.

Google is planning a reshuffle by reorganizing and laying off around 30,000 employees in ad sales. Advertisements on the Google search engine and YouTube are the company’s primary source of income, accounting for 58% of overall sales. However, the use of AI systems in ad sales has cut down human work. Elon Musk, who acquired X (formerly known as Twitter), claimed to lay off one-third of the workforce auditing illegal content by applying AI to perform the work.

Korea, where large-scale restructuring is regulated by law, has yet to see massive layoffs, but similar movements have been detected. Chatbots are replacing jobs at call centers of financial companies. The emergence of services combining AI with office software will significantly reduce younger employees’ document drafting and other daily work. Graphic design, coding, and other operations that have been performed for hours and days by humans are completed within seconds by AI, raising anxiety for related professions.

It is serious that AI is replacing white-collar jobs and office workers preferred by youth. Companies will be less likely to hire new workers as they deploy AI to perform work traditionally done by younger employees. This change is witnessed on the labor scene for self-employed as well. For example, fried chicken store owners buy frying robots instead of hiring younger part-timers.

The AI revolution is likely to transform the way humans work. In the U.S., blue-collar jobs that are unlikely to be replaced by AI are becoming popular among the youth. It will not be easy to adapt to such challenges with Korea’s labor system and labor-trade relations, which are the most rigid among advanced economies. We must revamp the labor system to allow unemployed youth to switch to new jobs and retrain older unemployed workers to adapt to new changes.