Zhang Quoted in Business Insider Article on Careers That Are Safest From Automation
September 10, 2025
Business Insider
Generative AI is rapidly changing industries and putting many white-collar jobs at risk, but some roles remain relatively safe for now. Trades, care work and specialized manufacturing jobs are less likely to be automated because they require physical skills, empathy and human judgment. Experts note that adaptability and personal connections will be crucial as automation continues to reshape the job market.
One safe bet is advanced manufacturing, where specialized roles still require human oversight despite growing automation on factory floors, says Baobao Zhang, Maxwell Dean Associate Professor of the Politics of AI. “They're not traditionally considered prestigious industries,” she says. “But it's these back-to-basics jobs that are harder to automate.”
Read more in the Business Insider article, “If you're worried about AI taking your job, these careers are the safest bets, an AI politics professor says.”
In Other News
Zhang was also a guest on the London School of Economics’ “The Ballpark” podcast. The discussion covered how recent advances in AI have shifted the landscape when it comes to labor automation, the anxiety that many people are feeling about the potential for AI to affect jobs and industries through automation, and what students should be doing to best prepare for a career in workplaces that will be affected by AI in the coming decades.
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