As artificial intelligence continues to advance, infiltrating schools and workplaces, some students and professors have raised concerns about job displacement. However, others are more optimistic, believing the human element to be irreplaceable.
In 2023, the investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated 300 million jobs could be replaced by AI technology. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report found roughly 41% of employers were considering workforce reductions due to advancements in AI.
Clerical positions and research assistant roles focused on data compilation are among the most vulnerable to being replaced by AI due to the ease of automation, said Vincent Bindschaedler, an assistant professor in the UF Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering. This shift has the potential to push productivity forward, he said.
However, Bindschaedler said AI's limitations will require human oversight. For example, inaccuracies caused by hallucinations — the tendency for large language models to fabricate information when faced with uncertainty — require human intervention.
AI is also unlikely to replace jobs involving physical tasks, he said, as it hasn’t advanced to a level where it can effectively interact with the physical world.
Regarding jobs fueled by creativity, the question is whether humans value human creations, Bindschaedler said. While AI can produce high-quality images, videos and audio, some individuals will always prefer content created by humans over that generated by a machine, he said.
“It's possible that people will still seek out human-made art, even when it's at the point that AI-made art is ‘better,’” he said.
There are ethical concerns with how people perceive and utilize AI technology because of its disruption to society, Bindschaedler said. With jobs at stake, he said it’s important to consider whether AI integration will ultimately lead to greater happiness and success.
Although AI-driven changes won’t happen overnight, Bindschaedler said getting familiar with AI tools can boost productivity and may help safeguard jobs, at least in the short-term.
“It might show you what part of your job actually cannot be done by those tools, and then you understand what value you actually have, even in a world full of these AI agents,” he said.
Anand Rangarajan, a professor in the UF Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, encourages liberal arts majors to engage with chatbots and explore their limitations.
“You will be able to bring a level of creativity, and you’ll be challenged because it's going to keep pushing you,” he said. “You would improve by knowing where it fails. That's important.”
While AI is able to handle basic data tasks and generate content such as videos and music, it lacks discernment and ingenuity, Rangarajan said. Human experience, awareness and perspective are presently irreplaceable, he said.
While Rangarajan acknowledged issues associated with AI, such as cheating, he said adjusting policies could transform AI from a crutch people overly rely on into a tool for spurring creativity.
“The question is, how do you change the policies so that a useful tool remains a useful tool, but isn't regulated out of existence?” he said.
Students weigh in
Christian Niebauer, a 20-year-old UF computer engineering junior specializing in hardware design, said he isn’t too worried about the impact of AI on his field — at least not yet. Niebauer said AI hasn’t yet mastered hardware design, but he does have worries that as AI continues to improve in this field, it could eventually take over his job.
Niebauer noted he’s already observed measurable improvements in AI’s handling of hardware descriptive languages over the past few years. This level of advancement could realistically happen within the next five years, Niebauer said.
“My plan right now is to just take machine learning courses and then maybe transition into that field at a later point, because I don't think I can outperform a very advanced computer,” he said.
To stay competitive in a world where AI is becoming more capable, Niebauer said people will need to start working with it, as those who choose not to will likely be left behind. However, he said AI will always have a distinct advantage: its sole purpose is to enhance its programming skills, whereas humans have lives outside of work.
Niebauer’s greatest concern is how companies choose to use AI and whether it’s going to be a way for companies to pay workers less because of the potential for AI to be cheaper and more efficient.
“My ideal situation would be that there's some kind of restriction in place that's like, ‘You can't have an AI do that for you because people need jobs,” he said, “but I try to be optimistic that that type of legislation would be put in place.”
Tristan Krammel, a 21-year-old UF English junior, said he believes using AI for brainstorming is acceptable, but that’s where he draws the line.
Regardless of how good AI is at producing its intended results, he said he wants to develop his own understanding of style and grammar without depending on a computer. For him, relying too heavily on AI would undermine the purpose of studying English.
AI-generated content may eventually rival or even surpass human creations, Krammel said, with a shift already evident. A 2024 study published in Scientific Reports found nonexpert readers favored poems generated by ChatGPT-3.5 over those written by famous poets like William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman or Sylvia Plath.
“We have to ask ourselves some very important questions, like is the key point of art and literature just to be good, or is a key point to be human-created?” Krammel said. “Everyone calls it AI slop, but in five or 10 years from now, what if AI is just inherently better than human creations?”
Krammel stressed the importance of holding those in the tech industry accountable for their creations. While he acknowledged it would be unreasonable to expect individuals to turn down lucrative job opportunities in favor of morality, he said responsibility for the impact of their work is essential.
It’s also important to establish interest groups and advocate for stronger legislative restrictions on AI, Krammel said. Without sufficient pushback, he fears humanity could face unforeseen consequences.
“If we wait 15 years to start pushing back against AI, it will be too late, because all the corporate interest would have gobbled it up, and we would have no power as individuals,” he said.
Devon Stettler, a 23-year-old UF computer science graduate student, said he believes the concern about AI replacing jobs is overstated because the only skill it’s currently proficient at is writing basic code and creating templates. Beyond that, Stettler said AI is significantly lacking.
He doesn’t foresee AI replacing many computer scientists, he said, except for some entry-level coders who are fresh out of a boot camp with only basic web development skills.
“From a software engineering perspective, [basic coding] doesn't really matter as much because… your main output isn’t code,” he said. “Your main output is the thought behind the code.”
One of his biggest concerns with AI in regards to the job market is that it might make students less prepared when entering the workforce, he said. Students might use it as a crutch for projects and assignments, which he said is especially harmful for students establishing a baseline.
AI can act as a study assistant to help students understand certain concepts, Stettler said, but he cautioned against using it for projects. Since AI primarily generates summaries, he said it doesn’t provide the depth needed for true learning.
“Even though I am personally unimpressed with [AI], I think it is very valid that people are very concerned about it,” he said. “I think it's going to currently hit education the worst, and I think that is where a lot of importance should be placed, because I think it's going to screw over a lot of people in the near future.”
Contact Annie Wang at awang@alligator.org. Follow her on X @wynwg.
Annie Wang is a metro general assignment reporter and a second-year journalism major. She has previously worked on the university desk as the university administration reporter. She enjoys reading and writing book reviews in her spare time.
