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Three Jobs That Will Survive the AI Revolution

• Dr. Jon Finn

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The AI revolution is already disrupting jobs across multiple industries, with technology that seemed like science fiction just months ago now becoming reality. Professor Stuart Russell's BBC Reith Lectures from 2021 offer a measured, academic perspective on AI's impact that predicted many developments we're now witnessing without hyperbole.

• IBM recently laid off 8,000 HR staff as AI takes over cognitive tasks
• UK graduate recruitment down 67%* as companies can use AI for entry-level tasks (*scroll down for a clarification on this stat)
• AI is affecting cognitive jobs now but will soon impact physical trades too
• Agricultural technology from companies like John Deere demonstrates how AI is transforming traditional physical work
• Three roles will likely survive: innovators solving complex problems, automators building AI systems, and human-AI performance psychology coaches
• The last defendable human skills will be helping other humans optimize their brain states
• High-charge brain states enable complex thinking that AI cannot yet replicate

We now have our AI Era Leadership Accelerator, where we support people to become AI era leaders who are future-proofed and in-demand experts. Check out the link beneath this podcast for more information about our monthly challenge programme, or contact us through our website.


*Graduate job listings in the UK have fallen by 67% since 2019, with AI playing a major role in that decline. While economic pressures and hiring slowdowns have contributed, experts estimate that 30–50% of the drop is directly linked to AI and automation reshaping entry-level roles — especially in sectors like finance, law, consulting, tech, and media. As routine graduate tasks are absorbed by AI, employers are hiring fewer juniors.

Speaker 1:

Hello, habit Mechanics. It's Dr John Finn here. I hope you're well Just recording a walking pod. Over the last probably seven days, there has been a lot of discussion about just how devastating AI is potentially going to be to human jobs is potentially going to be to human jobs, and some commentators completely buy into this. On the other end, some people say this is all hype. It's not real, and I thought a really interesting resource that I wanted to point out to people is the BBC Reef Lecture Series. The BBC do Christmas Reef Lecture Series and in I think it was 2021, december 2021, so before we had the release and the discussions around things like chat, gtp, these new generative AI systems, the lecturer if that's the right word for the Reef Lecture Series was Professor Stuart Russell, and Professor Stuart Russell is let me get this right he is the founder of the Centre of Human Compatible Artificial Intelligence at University of California, berkeley, and I listened to that lecture series.

Speaker 1:

I think there's there's at least four one hour lectures and he he goes. He starts from covering ai at a very high level and he goes into these different kind of verticals, if you like, for how ai is going to impact humans in different sectors, and there's nothing hype around what he's saying. He's coming out almost from a cold clinical academic perspective. So he's actually he's English, but, yeah, he's a professor at Berkeley, california and he has a very measured way of talking about this stuff. And what surprised me is how much of what he he's not really seen. He's not really. You don't really hear about him, stuart Russell. You hear more about the godfathers of AI, like, I think, geoffrey Hinton, who's another English guy, and there's a couple of I think it's two of the godfathers, isn't there One French and I think one maybe Canadian? You don't really hear much about Stuart Russell, but if you're thinking, is this stuff real that I'm hearing about? Listen to those lecture series because he's almost predicted the future, um, without the hype, just in real terms, and it's really interesting. One of the things he talks about, because he's pretty dangerous, is the use of things like drones and and you know, just this week we saw this almost like SS-style operation from the Ukrainian armed forces against the Russian armed forces using these drone technologies. That wouldn't have been thought about probably even 12, 24 months ago, if that even possible. And all this is being driven by AI and I think, ultimately, what Stuart Russell is saying, which completely dovetails with the most extreme.

Speaker 1:

What people might find the most extreme impact that AI is going to have, is that just slowly but surely, um, ai is gonna get better and better at being able to do every single role, every single task that humans currently do, and that doesn't just right now. We're seeing roles like HR. I think Microsoft just laid off not Microsoft IBM just laid off 8,000 people from their HR departments. We're seeing, I think, I think in the UK, I think in the UK I think this is the figure for the last 12 months that graduate recruitment is down 67% Because companies don't need low-skilled workers anymore and most of what graduates do is low-skilled compared to the people that have been doing their jobs for 20 years. They can just get AI to do that. Finance is being affected. Accountants is being affected. Skilled compared to their, the people that have been doing their jobs for 20 years right, they can just get ai to do that. Finance is being affected, accountants is being affected. So we're seeing right now the emergence of these technologies and they are disrupting more cognitive skills, but actually what stuart russell also points out is they're going to move into the physical skills as well. So lots of people are moving to sort of the trades, but that will also be disrupted those sectors by AI.

Speaker 1:

And, if you, there's a really interesting Amazon TV programme called Clarkson's Farm and I suppose Jeremy Clarkson's been like mustard people like him. I don't like him. But what I find really interesting, having done quite a lot of work for John Deere John Deere are, I think, the biggest manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the world and they see themselves as a technology company. So when you go to John Deere HQ in the UK you know they have boats that are cutting the grass, for example, but they have algorithms that are predicting you know what. What's the best way to get the best return on this crop? What's the best way to promote healthy soil conditions? And what's really interesting in the jeremy clarkson documentary for me is actually how technology is being used not software, hardware to actually do jobs that farmers would have used to have done, whether that's putting in a post like just something being hammered down, wrapping a hair bale, the combine harvesters how clever they are. I think that's a great demonstration of what the future is going to start to look like again.

Speaker 1:

The machines are not doing it by themselves, they're co-working with humans. But one thing that stuart russell says is that the last sort of defendable set of skills for humans are going to be what I would call human AI performance psychology skills. It's going to be the skills of humans helping other humans, because that is going to remain the most difficult thing for AI to be able to do. And you know, in my new book, train your Brain for the AI Revolution, I point towards this in chapter I think 27.

Speaker 1:

I talk about three roles for the future that I think will emerge. There will be, I think, the innovators that are. Just their job is to solve complex problems. That's what they're working on every day. How do we create a vaccine for this? How do we create buildings that absorb CO2 instead of pump it out? How do we build better education systems for our young people that are going to allow them to thrive in the AI world?

Speaker 1:

So we're going to have these innovators and then we're going to have the automators people that build the systems. So already we're seeing to have the automators people that build the systems. So already we're seeing that medium skilled developers have been pretty much wiped out by ai already. Let's be real ai is a baby. It's just a baby. It's just a beginning and it's already wiping out very skilled jobs, but we're still going to need humans in the loop on this stuff. Um, so we're going to have the automators that are going to build the software and the hardware and, you know, build the machines that actually do that. But then the third role is going to be human ai performance psychology coaches, because the innovators and the automators are only going to be as good as their ability to manage their brain states and consistently get into their high charge brain states, which is the the type of highly mental, complex thinking that ai is is least well able to do so. Human air performance psychology coaches are going to be working with humans to make it, with innovators and the automators to help them to do that.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not trying to paint some dystopian picture of the future. I think this is real and it's emerging and all the evidence that we're seeing is all pointing in the same direction. But if you think it's high, I would really recommend just go to the BBC or you can google this or use chatGTP or something. Look for the Wraith lecture series by professor stewart russell and I think it's from december 2021 and I think you'll find it very instructive. No hype, it's just. This is how this world leading expert in this technology this is this is what he was predicting would be unfolding. Um, you know, in the years ahead, and now we are. You know, we're four and a half years since those those lecture series was recorded and it's surprising how much of what he said is actually coming to fruition. Um, so I hope that's insightful.

Speaker 1:

Um, I I see my role here as I want to help people, I want to educate people, but we need to be realistic. We can't bury our heads in the sand on this. We've got to educate ourselves. We've got to learn about the tech, we've got to learn how to embed it into our work cultures, into our workflows and our work cultures into our workflows and, yeah, and our work cultures. Um, so, yeah, I hope that was interesting.

Speaker 1:

Remember, we now have our ai era leadership accelerator, where we are turning up every day and we're supporting people to become ai era leaders that are future proofed, that are in demand experts, and that includes becoming a ai era coach as well. So if that's of interest to you, um, you can access that via. I'll put a link actually in this podcast. Beneath this podcast. We're running, uh, fourday challenges as part of that programme. So it's a monthly challenge programme where there's a new challenge every month and we have four-day mini challenges in the middle of that and we just did our first one last week and the feedback's been excellent. So I'm really excited about these and the benefits that it's delivering to people. So, yeah, if that's of interest, you can check out the link beneath the podcast or just contact us via our website. We can give you more details. It'd be great to see you in there. Okay, enjoy the rest of the day and remember you're only ever one brain state habit away.