What 15,000+ working people actually report

Is my job safe from AI?

By Jon Miksis, founder of Make the Leap · Data updated July 2026

Every week another headline announces the end of some profession, and every week actual working people have to calibrate: is my job on the list, and what is the smart move if it is? We have an unusual window into that question - our assessment asks working adults directly how AI is landing on their work, and enough of them have answered to see the pattern.

The honest headline from our data: about one in ten working people say AI threatens their job - but the average hides the spread. Administrative and healthcare workers report roughly triple the concern of executives. And the people who feel threatened are not naive; they tend to be the ones watching the automatable layer of their own job shrink in real time.

What our data shows about people who feel AI-threatened

1,574
people who feel AI-threatened in our assessment data
51%
are 15+ years into their careers
52%
name burnout as a current pain
47%
name feeling underpaid

The most common pains this group names: burnout (52%), feeling underpaid (47%), a lack of meaning (35%), a bad culture (31%), not using their strengths (30%).

AI worry, by profession

Share of each profession's assessment takers who say AI threatens their current work:

Healthcare workers14%
Nurses14%
Administrative professionals11%
Teachers10%
Accounting & finance8%
Marketing7%
Project & operations management6%
Executives & senior leaders4%

Where the data points next

Where the AI-threatened cohort's assessments point: notice how many themes involve owning outcomes rather than performing tasks.

Starting an independent business38%
Other specialist paths31%
Program and operations roles29%
Mission-driven and nonprofit work26%
Writing and content work22%
Training, facilitation, and speaking20%

The pattern across our data: task-shaped work (scheduling, drafting, processing) is automating; judgment-shaped work (deciding, persuading, owning outcomes) is not. The people who feel threatened and act on it move up the judgment stack or into hands-on work - the two lanes AI reaches last.

What people who feel AI-threatened in our data earn today

Current household income bands this group reports - useful for calibrating what a transition has to protect:

Under $40k
29%
$40-60k
28%
$60-90k
24%
$90-120k
10%
$120-175k
7%
$175-250k
2%
$250k+
1%

Start this week

Three income-safe first moves. None require quitting, announcing, or being ready:

  1. 1

    Audit one normal week: mark each recurring hour task-shaped (automatable) or judgment-shaped (defensible). The ratio is your actual exposure, headline-free.

  2. 2

    Automate one of your own task-shaped hours this month with an AI tool. Operators of the automation stay employed; subjects of it do not.

  3. 3

    Pick one judgment asset to grow this quarter: own a budget, a client relationship, or a decision. Accountability is the moat.

Honest answers

Which jobs does our data show feeling most AI-threatened?

Administrative and healthcare workers report the highest concern in our assessment data, followed by teachers; executives report the lowest. The full by-profession table is on this page and in our research hub, computed from each profession's own respondents.

Should I change careers because of AI?

Change because the work is wrong for you; reposition because of AI. For most people the right move is not fleeing the field but shifting weight inside it - from the automatable task layer to the judgment layer. If the field itself is task-shaped, that is when a real change is rational.

What skills are actually AI-resistant?

The recurring winners across our data's path themes: judgment under ambiguity, trust-based relationships, hands-on skilled work, and accountability for outcomes. Note that 'creative' is not automatically safe - creative production automates faster than creative judgment.

How do I AI-proof my career without starting over?

Audit your own week: which hours are task-shaped (automatable) and which are judgment-shaped (defensible)? Grow the second deliberately - own budgets, decisions, client relationships. Our assessment maps your strengths against exactly that split.

How do I know if AI will replace my job?

Ignore the headlines and audit your own week: hours that are task-shaped - processing, drafting, scheduling - are automatable, while hours that are judgment-shaped - deciding, persuading, owning outcomes - are defensible. Your personal ratio tells you more than any occupation-level prediction, because jobs rarely disappear whole. Tasks do.

What should I do if AI takes my job?

Stabilize first: runway, benefits, filings. Then move up or sideways - up the judgment stack in your own field, or sideways into hands-on and relationship-heavy work that AI reaches last. Your experience does not evaporate with the role; the tasks did. The assessment maps which of your strengths are the durable kind.

Will learning AI skills protect my job?

Partially. Being the person who operates the tools beats being the person the tools replace, and in our data the professions with the highest AI worry are exactly where that move is most available. But tool skills commoditize fast - pair them with judgment, domain depth, and owned outcomes for real protection.

See what the data says about you.

The free assessment reads your actual answers - your strengths, constraints, and the pattern keeping you stuck - and gives you personalized paths in about 10 minutes.

Take the free Career Leap

Keep reading

More situations like yours

Numbers on this page were computed on 2026-07-08 from 15,903 completed Make the Leap career assessments. Cohort: assessment takers who said AI threatens their current work. The by-profession table uses each profession's own respondents. Percentages use the respondents who answered each question; path themes are counted once per person from their personalized assessment paths. Full dataset and methodology: our research hub.