This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 26, 2025 - June 1, 2025

The robots are coming! Or so the headlines scream. The rapid, almost dizzying advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has plunged the world into a fervent debate.

At the heart of this discourse lies a question that touches every individual, every industry and every segment of society: What will AI do to our jobs? Are we staring down the barrel of mass unemployment or is a different story unfolding?

The fear of job displacement is understandable. AI’s ability to learn, reason and perform tasks once thought exclusive to humans will undeniably catalyse one of the most significant transformations in labour history.

However, assuming this leads to net job destruction oversimplifies the dynamic nature of economic and technological progress. As some roles diminish or change, new ones will emerge.

The future of work, shaped by AI, is less about extinction and far more about profound evolution and augmentation of human potential. It is a future where technology doesn’t just replace but elevates, collaborates and unlocks new avenues for ingenuity.

As analysts aptly state, “Technology’s value does not come from replacing human labour; it’s working more closely than ever with humans, amplifying their ability to discover and capture opportunities for innovation and growth.”

Let us cut through the noise and focus on what leading research says.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 forecasts that while AI will transform 86% of businesses by 2030, it will also create 170 million new roles worldwide while rendering 92 million jobs obsolete.

Do the math: that’s a net gain of 78 million jobs.

McKinsey & Co echoes this, estimating that AI could generate 20 million to 50 million new jobs globally by 2030. Looking even further, Gartner projects that by 2036, AI will help create over half a billion net-new jobs through augmentation and automation.

Of course, this transition won’t be seamless. Jobs most vulnerable to AI disruption tend to involve repetitive, rule-based tasks , for example, data entry clerks, assembly-line workers and basic data processors. But the story doesn’t end there.

We have seen this before. The Industrial Revolution sparked fear among artisans and textile weavers as machines took over manual work. However, far from wiping out employment, it created new industries and management roles with mechanised processes dramatically multiplying productivity.

Similarly, the internet transformed commerce, communication and creativity. Today, 60% of workers are in jobs that didn’t exist 80 years ago and 85% of employment growth since 1940 is due to technology.

AI does pose a unique challenge — it is not just physical but cognitive. It automates tasks involving reasoning and decision-making. This shift requires a deeper, faster adaptation in education and upskilling, focusing on higher-­order thinking and emotional intelligence.

The most crucial mindset shift is from replacement to collaboration. AI is increasingly deployed to enhance, not eliminate, human capability. Think of it as a “supertool” — like the steam engine or the internet — democratising knowledge and freeing humans to focus on what machines can’t replicate.

AI still lacks common sense, emotional depth and ethical judgment. That is where humans remain irreplaceable. The synergy between man and machine is where innovation thrives.

•     Technology: AI coding assistants boost developer productivity by 20% to 35%.

•     Finance: AI analyses data; humans oversee strategy, compliance and client trust.

•     Healthcare: AI helps with diagnostics while humans focus on empathy and complex care.

•     Manufacturing: AI handles inspection and forecasting; humans manage strategy and disruptions.

•     Creative industries: Generative AI drafts content; humans curate, refine and align it with brand and emotion.

•     Legal: AI accelerates research and document review; lawyers focus on strategy and court work.

Across these sectors, AI handles the repetitive; humans handle the strategic, emotional and creative.

AI is not only transforming jobs; it is creating entirely new ones, such as:

•     AI developers and engineers;

•     Machine learning engineers;

•     AI-focused data scientists/analysts;

•     Prompt engineers;

•     AI ethicists;

•     Generative AI engineers; and

•     Computer vision specialists.

These roles were either rare or non-­existent a decade ago, showing AI’s potential as a job creator.

As AI redefines roles, the workforce must evolve across three dimensions:

•     Domain-specific professional skills: Industry knowledge remains key and is now augmented by AI;

•     Generalised professional skills: Project management, analysis and planning are more cross-functional than ever; and

•     Human skills (“soft skills”): Creativity, critical thinking, communication, empathy and adaptability are increasingly vital.

The ideal future worker? A hybrid — technically savvy, emotionally intelligent and strategically agile individual.

The future of work in the AI era is not a dystopian tale of obsolescence but a compelling narrative of evolution, empowerment and opportunity. While disruption is inevitable, AI is poised to create more roles than it displaces and amplify the value of human talent.

The AI-driven future is not one to fear but one to actively shape with purpose and confidence.

Akhil Gupta is the group CEO of a conglomerate delivering IT infrastructure, AI and talent solutions across 18 countries

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.