Will AI Take Your Job? The Reality of the Artificial Intelligence Era

 From Kakarbhitta to California, there is one common question: Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) take away jobs? The clear answer is yes, but not by AI itself; rather, people who know how to use AI will replace those who do not. The real threat to Nepal is not AI—the real threat is remaining stuck in old skills during the AI era. For those who make AI a tool, this era is one of opportunity. For those who sit with their eyes closed, this era could become a time of displacement.

The question is not "Will AI take jobs?" The question is—"Am I ready to move forward with AI?" Let's look at an example: A person working in a software company was also working as a content writer until last year. Their work of writing blog posts, product descriptions, and marketing copy all day was suddenly halved—after the company started using generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, their work and income decreased. The work previously done by five writers is now not even enough for two people who know AI.

This is not just the story of one person; it is the beginning of an era, the AI era. AI has made work much easier. Tasks that took hours can now be finished in minutes. Work done by five people is now being done by one. Complex problems can be solved easily. AI has emerged as a revolutionary technology to make life even easier.

What is happening around the world?

According to the World Economic Forum's estimates, 92 million jobs will be displaced by 2030. According to the forum's 2025 'Future of Jobs Report', 41 percent of employers worldwide are already planning to reduce their workforce due to AI automation in the next five years. They will not wait five years because the change is already starting to happen.

In the first six months of 2025 alone, 77,999 tech-related jobs were lost. According to Goldman Sachs, AI could affect 300 million jobs worldwide, which is 9.1 percent of total global employment.

Which jobs are most at risk?

According to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, highly educated white-collar jobs earning up to $80,000 annually are at the highest risk of automation. With the increasing use of AI, repetitive and rule-based jobs will be at risk. Jobs in data entry, call centers, customer service, content writing, translation, repetitive industrial tasks, graphic design, software programming, and accounting will be at risk.

According to one study, there is a high possibility of AI automation in 54 percent of banking jobs. It is estimated that paralegals in the legal sector will face an 80 percent risk by 2026. In the health sector, medical transcription has already been automated. Bloomberg research says that AI can replace 53 percent of market research analyst tasks and 67 percent of sales representative tasks. According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, AI has started handling half of the company's work. Because of this, he has reduced more than 4,000 customer service employees. IBM has replaced hundreds of human resource roles with AI chatbots.

Since the beginning of 2025, unemployment among 20 to 30-year-olds working in AI-affected sectors has increased by nearly three percentage points. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has made a harsh prediction that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.

AI increases jobs

For a fair analysis, it is necessary to look at this side as well. According to experts, the number of jobs created by AI will be higher than those lost. According to the World Economic Forum's estimates, 92 million jobs will be displaced by 2030, but 170 million new jobs will be created because of AI. There could be a net growth of 78 million jobs globally, meaning the market impact of AI could be positive overall. Demand for AI engineer roles is growing by more than 140 percent.

The Industrial Revolution displaced those working in mills, but it also created more industries and more jobs. We have seen and experienced that when the computer revolution displaced many jobs in the 1970s, it increased even more jobs. Within 30 years, computers became a part of daily life. It is projected that 2.3 million new AI-related jobs will open in India alone by 2027. Therefore, the AI revolution is also in a position to increase employment rather than displace it.

According to a study, professionals with AI skills earn up to 56 percent more salary in the same role compared to colleagues without those skills. This data sends a clear message that learning AI is more beneficial than trying to fight it. An unprecedented opportunity has opened up for Nepali freelancers; with the right tools, a developer in Biratnagar or a digital marketer in Pokhara can compete for high wages in America or Europe and bring foreign currency into Nepal.

What is the situation in Nepal?

This question touches Nepal in a different way. Since our economy is based on agriculture, tourism, and remittances, the direct threat may not be felt immediately, but the indirect impact will be deep. More than 60 percent of workers in Nepal are in agriculture or manual labor, which keeps AI-driven risks limited for now. However, without strong digital skills and capabilities, Nepal could fall behind in the high-value global economy.

Full-time regular jobs in Nepal have decreased rapidly, while outsourced and contract work has increased significantly. Nepal's BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector is particularly sensitive. Nepal's economy is heavily dependent on the service sector, BOP, and administrative roles—these are the areas most suitable for automation.

The government in Nepal has declared 2024-2034 as the Information Technology Decade. It aims to create 1.5 million new tech jobs and export IT services worth 3 trillion Nepali rupees within the decade. This is an ambitious goal, but for this, AI must be understood as an opportunity, not a challenge.

What is the government doing?

The Government of Nepal has officially approved the National AI Policy 2082. Although late, this is a significant achievement in the country's digital transformation journey. This policy envisions the strategic integration of AI in health, education, agriculture, and public administration sectors. The Government of Nepal has implemented the new AI policy with the goal of preparing at least 5,000 personnel in the AI sector within five years. This policy has adopted a strategy to establish an AI Regulatory Council in Nepal to guide the research, development, and use of AI in a way that is compatible with international basic principles and practices.

With a commitment to maximize the use of AI in economic and social sectors, the policy mentions that Nepal's position in the global AI Readiness Index will be brought within the top 50. The policy also mentions establishing a mechanism to manage potential job losses due to AI and address its social and economic consequences. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has stated that AI will provide both opportunities and challenges for Nepal's development. The UNDP has emphasized that it is necessary to develop AI in a human-centric direction rather than to automate capabilities. Overall, it can be said that AI will not take away jobs but will produce more jobs than before. It removes repetitive, mechanical tasks, but it cannot replace human creativity, empathy, and complex decision-making ability. RSS