The question on how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect the future of our jobs is very pertinent to everyone. 

The simple answer is that most jobs – from medicine, engineering, journalism, law, accounts, banking, finance, customer service, research etc – will be affected at least to some degree, even though they may not necessarily be replaced completely. 

On the other hand, there will be minimal impact on jobs requiring soft skill, such as interpersonal relations, critical thinking, leadership, decision making as well as jobs in the trade skills category, such as plumbing, electricians and craftsmen.

Research seem to point to the view that entry level jobs (post-university internship jobs, such as market research, payroll clerks, data entry, data gathering and literature review) face the greatest risk because AI can easily execute these tasks. 

This may be worrying because one of the fears most graduates face is getting an entry level job, which they now need to compete for with AI.

The most current reports, the 2025 World Bank survey report as well as the 2025 World Economic Forum report, established that women will be affected more by AI in workplaces. 

This is because women tend to be over-represented in jobs that are easily amenable to automation. 

These include roles such as payroll clerks, data entry workers as well as roles such as recruitment selection. 

They are under-represented in the trade skills category of jobs such as plumbing, electricians, craftsmen. 

Trade skill jobs are less exposed to AI simulation. In addition, while there are some progress, women are still under-represented in managerial and executive roles global. 

These domains are projected to be affected less by AI.

Bloomberg found that AI could replace more than 50% of the tasks performed by market research analysts (53%) and sales representatives (67%), compared to just 9% and 21% for their managerial counterparts. Effectively, university graduates suffer the most because the career ladder mostly involves access to the job market via entry level roles that AI executes with better efficiency.

Since AI is built around improved efficiency on routine tasks, reduction in production time and increased output with minimal effort, companies will seek to use AI in roles that can be automated to maximise profits at minimum cost. 

Otherwise, why employ a human being if machines can perform such tasks with maximum efficiency with significantly reduced cost?

What are the likely implications on low income countries? A 2025 World Bank labour force survey in 25 developing countries, covering a population of 3.5 billion people, showed that job exposure to AI determines the extent to which occupations will be augmented, automated or displaced by AI. AI occupational exposure index measures how much an occupation is exposed to AI. 

The study showed that low-income country jobs may be less exposed to AI compared to high income countries. 

Some factors contributing to this include access to electricity and internet As well as the differential growth and development of AI, which is slower for developing countries compared to developed countries. 

Therefore, the outlook for job displacement is disproportionately high for income countries, where most jobs are overly exposed to AI, with the consequence that threatens to reshape entire industries.

However, there are other multiple layers of factors that impact on job exposure to AI. 

Even those with a higher education are highly exposed to AI. 

This is because, as stated above, occupations in these domains tend to be highly technical, requiring more technology use. 

We may also see that jobs that have a nigh reliance on manual labour could be affected less because AI does not have the capacity to replace these jobs – at least for now.

The next question would be, what then ought to be done?

There are no clear answers to this problem yet. Perhaps one solution could be the creation of safety nets to caution and prepare early career graduates into the job market. 

For example, faced with joblessness and high skills shortages, the Namibian government has directed all government ministries, departments and agencies as well as regional councils and local authorities to make budgetary provisions for apprenticeships and graduate internships during the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years. 

Provision of such safety nets is anticipated to give early career graduates valuable hands-on experience.In addition, universities will need to urgently integrate AI skills training in the university curricula, and not necessarily discourage its use. This means significant investments through huge capital outlays for necessary infrastructure and capacity building to allow the growth of future drivers of technological innovation and development. Unfortunately, without this, universities, particularly those in less developed countries where AI development is still lagging, will continue to play the catching up game.

There is also need for constructive policies that balance between allowing skills development through the use of AI and prohibit over-reliance by students on easily available AI tools that can motivate students to cheat.

However, there is no need to lose much hope. There are certain competencies that AI cannot take away from humans. 

Examples include relational skills, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, leadership and decision making as well as trade skills category, such as plumbing, electrical work and craftsmen. 

Perhaps this little analysis temporarily puts to rest a few fears. 

As AI keeps developing, more issues will arise, and some claims made in this piece may be contested.

*Dr Stanley Tsarwe is a communication researcher and journalism lecturer at the University of Namibia. He can be contacted on stsarwe@unam.na./tsarwes@gmail.com