Will AI Take My Job?

Our guide explains what AI is, why it is suddenly everywhere, who it affects more, its wider impact and how to avoid being displaced by AI

Updated 29 April 2025

Summary

For the majority of the last few decades, AI has been a big buzzword and a pipedream. However, the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 has completely revolutionised the game and changed the conversation around integrating AI into our everyday lives.
Whether used for personal planning, working out budgeting, or assisting in drafting emails or work reports, AI can completely change how we work and live – making it more efficient and productive with less time spent. Powering chatbots, generating images, scanning legal documents, and writing code are incredibly easy tasks for AI.
However, the next question that many New Zealanders have now after seeing how magical apps like Chat GPT are is: “Will AI take my job?”. It's an understandable concern. Past technological leaps, from farming tools to the internet, have dramatically reshaped the workforce.
AI feels different, though, because it promises to automate not just manual labour but also knowledge work — and fast.
It’s completely normal to feel uncertain about new technologies and what that means for our futures in the workforce – especially if you’re a Millennial or Gen Z. Some types of jobs and industries are most at risk, whilst others will be more insulated. The stereotypical white-collar roles that people usually think of as safe aren’t automatically protected, and blue-collar jobs are also being affected in different ways.

To help explain what you need to know, our guide covers:

Christopher Walsh, MoneyHub Founder, shares his views on AI and how you can transform your work and embrace the revolution:

"AI is rewriting the rules of work in New Zealand, and it's happening faster than most realise. Think of it as the internet's arrival in the '90s, but on steroids—it's not just a tool; it's a revolution that's reshaping jobs, industries, and how we live. At MoneyHub, we've seen firsthand how AI can turbocharge productivity, from crunching financial data in seconds to crafting personalised budgeting plans for Kiwis. But here's the truth: you're already falling behind if you're not working with AI.

The job market is shifting under our feet. Companies like Spark have openly cited AI as a reason for layoffs in 2024, streamlining roles in customer service and data processing because AI can handle those tasks faster and cheaper. This isn't a distant future—it's now. Roles in marketing, coding, legal ops, and admin are being transformed or eliminated as AI takes on repetitive, data-heavy tasks. For example, AI-powered chatbots are slashing call centre jobs, and tools like GitHub Copilot are writing code 10X faster than the average developer. But this isn't about despair; it's about opportunity. AI doesn't just take jobs—it creates them and evolves others. New roles like AI prompt engineers, machine learning specialists, and data ethicists are emerging, and they're in high demand across Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

The key is to work with AI, not against it. It's about offloading the grunt work so you can focus on what humans do best: creativity, strategy, and connection. This isn't just efficiency; it's a competitive edge. Businesses that harness AI for personalisation will outpace those stuck in the old ways.

Ignoring AI will be a bad idea, and Spark's layoffs are a wake-up call given companies are prioritising efficiency, and AI is their weapon of choice. If you're in a role that involves routine tasks—whether you're a white-collar coder or a blue-collar warehouse worker—AI is coming for the repetitive bits. The good news? You can stay ahead by embracing it. Start small: use free tools like ChatGPT and Grok to automate emails, analyse data, or brainstorm ideas. Challenge its outputs—AI isn't perfect, and your ability to refine its work makes you indispensable.

Don't put your head in the sand. AI isn't a threat—it's your co-worker, your assistant, your edge. Ask it questions, test its limits, and make it part of your daily grind. AI can help you work faster, smarter, and more creatively. The future isn't coming—it's here, and it's personalised and powerful. Embrace it, or risk being left out of the biggest transformation since the internet".

MoneyHub Founder
Christopher Walsh

What Is AI, and Why Is It Suddenly Everywhere? Who Will AI Affect More?

AI is software that performs tasks generally associated with human intelligence. It might analyse data, interpret language, make predictions, or generate content. Recent breakthroughs in machine learning and neural networks allow modern AI systems to handle tasks once seen as uniquely human-like, summarising complex text, writing coherent articles, or recognising faces and voices.

The most significant and widely adopted AI that set this all off was Open AI’s Chat GPT, a free chatbot with paid options that enables users to ask it questions and complete a wide variety of tasks that would have seemed largely difficult or impossible five years ago.

Important:

The reason AI is suddenly mainstream has much to do with better algorithms, more powerful computers, and vast amounts of data. Costs of computing have plummeted, cloud-based services have proliferated, and open-source libraries make machine-learning tools accessible to everyday New Zealanders. The result is a massive wave of AI innovations hitting industries across the board, from finance and healthcare to marketing and logistics.
There’s also a clear business incentive: AI can lower costs and increase output. Whether it’s automating customer service queries or predicting consumer behaviour more accurately than a human team, companies see AI as a way to gain an edge. That's why it has spread quickly, and the workforce feels pressured.

Why Are White-Collar Jobs Unexpectedly in the Crosshairs?

Historically, automation has aimed at repetitive manual tasks like blue-collar manufacturing. Farming became mechanised, and assembly lines were largely automated by robotics.
In contrast, white-collar jobs — like law, accounting, coding, or marketing — were typically seen as out of reach for machines because they involved critical thinking, more complex reasoning and creativity. Yet large language models and AI-driven analytic tools now handle a big chunk of that “knowledge work” faster than most humans can. Many AIs are becoming increasingly more creative, critically analytic and complex.
Office tasks such as drafting emails, creating reports, processing data, or writing code are particularly ripe for AI because these tasks can often be broken down into patterns. AI can scan millions of documents, text snippets, or lines of code to learn how professionals typically solve similar problems. Once those patterns are identified, generating new content or insights becomes a matter of a few keystrokes.
For many companies, that efficiency is irresistible. If one person with an AI assistant can do the work of five people, it means fewer salaries, fewer overhead costs, and (often) fewer errors. This is why jobs once deemed safe — e.g. coding, legal research, technical writing, financial analysis, marketing copy, etc are increasingly at risk of being either replaced or scaled down drastically. White-collar workers, in effect, are learning that “thinking” jobs might be as automatable as “doing” jobs.

Blue-Collar Jobs Are Not Exempt Either

It's tempting to imagine that only office tasks will vanish while roles requiring manual skills stay secure. That's partially true in the short run because certain hand-eye coordination challenges and unpredictable environments are still tough for AI-driven robots. However, advanced robotics and machine learning are making inroads into what used to be purely manual domains.
Manufacturing plants have had industrial robots for decades. Still, today's machines can learn and adapt on the fly — running quality checks, handling more complex tasks, and working safely alongside humans.
Autonomous vehicles threaten truck drivers, delivery drivers, and taxi or rideshare drivers, and the technology keeps improving. Warehousing, construction, and agriculture are also seeing the gradual encroachment of AI-driven machinery that can pack goods, pick fruit, lay bricks, or patrol shelves without human fatigue.
In short, the line between “hands-on roles” and “automatable tasks” isn’t as firm as it used to be. While some trades remain safer for now—plumbers, electricians, and hairstylists, for instance—robots can learn to handle basic tasks, and the technology improves each year. Even industries like construction are experimenting with 3D-printed houses and robotic bulldozers.

Examples of White-Collar Jobs that are at Risk of AI

Our list is not exhaustive - a lot more is coming. However, the good news is that AI helps improve what the roles below can achieve, so using an AI tool as a marketing manager, for example, will mean better outcomes.

Marketing Roles

If you're in marketing, you're probably used to running campaigns, analysing data, and coming up with strategies. AI can now analyse trends, segment customers, and craft personalised marketing strategies. Tools like ChatGPT can write blog posts, social media captions, and even full-blown email campaigns, cutting out the need for human copywriters. AI analytics can predict consumer behaviour and optimise ad spending more accurately than many human marketers.

Software Developers

It was a common viewpoint that software engineering was a difficult, technical profession at low risk of automation due to the complexity of the tasks that software engineers had to deal with.

However, paradoxically, AI is extremely proficient at writing code. Because some coders write code 100x, 1000x or 10,000x better than the average software engineer, AI has the ability to analyse hundreds of millions of lines of code to identify the most succinct and best code that’s free from error corrections. This means that for the majority of coders, AI will write code much faster and more accurately than you can (right now).

Platforms like GitHub Copilot are helping developers write code faster and with fewer bugs. In a few years, the need for entire teams of coders could shrink significantly (e.g., 90% fewer software engineers), especially when AI gets even better at developing applications from scratch.

Even seasoned developers might find themselves redundant as AI tools continue to advance. It's not just about optimising code, either — AI can predict the best frameworks, automate testing, and even launch applications with minimal human involvement.

Legal Operations (e.g. Paralegal or Discovery)

Routine tasks — like sifting through legal documents or reviewing court discovery case documents — are especially vulnerable to automation. AI can detect patterns or anomalies faster than humans, threatening paralegals, junior associates, and number-crunchers.

Several startups (like Harvey or LawVu) are increasingly making it more effective for lawyers to reduce admin hours and spend more time on higher-value workstreams (like working with clients rather than drafting meticulous meeting notes).

Financial Services (particularly data-heavy analytics)

Whether analysing financial statements or forecasting profit and loss statements, AI is becoming increasingly efficient at process-driven numerical reporting and forecasting. While a human will always need to sense, check, and sign off on things like audit reports or financial statements, AI means there will likely be far less need for the number of employees at firms like KPMG, EY, PwC or Deloitte.

Customer Support Roles

Many companies are utilising AI to streamline their helpdesk or phone support systems. AI can now effectively route calls or deal with queries without any human interaction, freeing up many thousands of hours (and likely displacing thousands of call centre workers abroad).

General Administrative Work

Whether it's note-taking, routine inquiries, scheduling appointments or processing forms, AI can effectively do all of these tasks autonomously and seamlessly. Reducing the need for human effort to complete these tasks.

Healthcare

Diagnosing X-rays, analysing medical images, or even assisting with surgery can be partly automated. Doctors, nurses, and surgeons still provide human care and oversight, but AI can handle data-heavy tasks like pattern recognition in imaging or triage assistance.

While there will always be a need for face-to-face interaction with patients, many functions that doctors used to complete manually (that took up lots of their working time) can now be automated. In some instances, AI is far better at diagnosing or processing images/information than doctors and we believe this is where further investment will continue.

Understanding AI’s Wider Impact

Beyond who’s hired or let go, AI has effects on the broader economy and society:

1. AI is Deflationary

Because AI can do the same tasks at a lower cost (relative to paying a human per hour), some goods and services may become cheaper to produce (especially if companies decide to cut costs on their products/services to win market share).
However, not all companies pass savings on to customers - some simply enjoy higher profit margins, and the potential drop in wages for certain tasks can impact workers’ spending power.

2. Overall, there is likely to be a lower need for employees

If AI is effective in doing a significant portion of work for companies (e.g. a handful of engineers or analysts with powerful AI tools can accomplish what previously took a team ten times the size), fewer overall workers may be needed – and these people will either need to retrain or find alternative jobs in the same industry.

3. Shifts in Skill Requirements (which impacts what Kiwis study)

Just like New Zealanders in the 20th century needed to pivot from typical manual labour jobs (e.g. car manufacturing) to new industries created by technology (like computer science, software engineering, etc) – the same thing will happen with AI to the current work sectors. The roles that remain (or are newly created) might demand different skills.
Workers who rely heavily on repetitive tasks may find themselves edged out unless they reskill or move into more human-centric roles. For example, it’s unlikely that call centre workers will remain in as high demand as they have for the last 20 years.

4. Social and Economic Disruption

Rapid changes (like those that AI brings) can lead to unrest if large portions of Kiwis lose jobs and cannot bounce back quickly. Many of these people have families, dependents and mortgages to pay. Whilst New Zealand has robust safety nets (e.g. Jobseeker Support), this may not be enough to sustain the population for extended periods.

5. Quality of Life Changes

In an ideal world, AI could free people from work, letting them spend more time on complex decision-making, relationship-building, or creativity. The transition to that ideal, though, can be bumpy and uneven across different industries and demographics and is unlikely to happen if there aren't significant financial policies to support this (e.g. Universal Basic Income).

How Can I Avoid Being Displaced by AI?

1. Use AI. Embrace AI

While technology change can be scary, you need to try and get as comfortable using it as possible (or risk being left behind). Resist the urge to ignore or fight automation. Instead, learn how to use AI tools in your field — coding assistants, content generators, or data analysis.
Becoming the go-to person who understands AI’s strengths and weaknesses makes you more valuable. If ten people are in your company and only two roles are required, those with AI proficiency will be much better off than people who don't know how to use AI.

2. Leverage Human Skills

AI is great at processing tasks, but the additional "edge" comes from interpersonal skills. You can't use AI to interact with your team. Emotional intelligence, leadership, teamwork, negotiation — these “soft skills” remain in demand and give you an edge over others.
Focus on careers and tasks hinge on empathy, persuasion, trust-building, or complex interpersonal relationships.

3. Network

While AI may lead to widespread adjustments in the job market, the wider your network – the more likely you are to be able to adapt and land a new job. As industries shift, who you know can open doors to new opportunities. A supportive professional network can help you pivot faster if your role becomes obsolete.

4. Try to Work for Industries that Benefit from AI

Find areas that are likely to continue existing even with the advancements in AI. Healthcare, education, and the creative arts won’t vanish - they’ll likely integrate AI as a tool. The same goes for entrepreneurial paths. You'll be an asset if you can use AI to streamline processes and deliver better products or services.

5. Even If It's Minor, Start Playing Around With AI Tools. Now

In adition to point 1 above, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and think that the world will change drastically overnight with all the AI news. However, remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.
AI’s rapid rollout can make it feel like you must completely reinvent yourself overnight. In reality, displacement is often gradual. The biggest mistake is complacency: assuming your role is too complex to automate, so you do nothing. Instead, take proactive steps. If you see a wave coming, learning to surf is far better than hoping it never reaches you.
AI is free (especially for the older models like Chat GPT 3.5 or 4, and US$20 – 30 a month for the best-in-class models). The best advice is to start playing around with these AI models in your spare time or work context.
Try to improve getting better at asking the right prompts/questions, figuring out the limits of what the AI can provide, how you can offload some of the current tasks or workstreams you do manually to AI and potentially try to teach others about what you’ve learned.
Big tech companies are spending hundreds of billions on building AI (making them far more powerful and accessible to the masses), and many AI foundation model companies are rushing to compete against each other. Whether it’s Open AI’s Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthopic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama, Microsoft’s Copilot, etc., there are a heap of free and paid AI applications that Kiwis can try for free. The biggest advice is to start playing around with it and get more comfortable using it.

Must-Know Facts about AI Taking Your Job

Not all is lost for those in the working world - AI gives us an opportunity; we outline what you need to know below:

1. We Can Learn From the Past Technology Waves

Fears of job displacement are not new. People fretted over the steam engine, electricity, and computers, too. Some jobs did vanish (like carriage-makers and switchboard operators), but new careers emerged (mechanics, electricians, web developers).
Economic growth often accompanied these transitions, creating industries nobody had previously imagined.The twist with AI is that it moves much faster than previous breakthroughs. Chat GPT can receive an upgrade in weeks or months, acquiring new capabilities that would have taken years to develop in the past. This speed compresses the timeline for workers to adapt. If you suspect AI might automate your role, the window of opportunity to pivot could be fairly short.
Still, there’s reason for cautious optimism. As old roles decline, new roles will appear (on both AI's technical and human sides). The real challenge is adapting quickly and identifying which areas are likely to continue growing.
The transition won’t be smooth or painless for everyone, but historically, technology expansions have increased overall wealth, creating the possibility — though not the guarantee — of new and rewarding roles.

2. AI Can’t Do Everything Better

AI excels at spotting patterns, processing large volumes of data, and performing repetitive tasks without fatigue. It can also generate creative-looking outputs—articles, images, and music. But AI isn’t great at everything:
AI Lacks Genuine Emotional Intelligence. AI can simulate empathy through carefully chosen words, but it doesn’t feel it. Deep relationships, trust-building, and emotional nuance remain human strongholds.
AI Has Inherent Biases. If the AI is trained on biased data, AI replicates or amplifies that bias. Humans must provide oversight to ensure fairness and ethical decisions.
Humans Prefer Human Creativity. While AI can churn out content and even combine styles in intriguing ways, it doesn’t experience inspiration, personal struggle, or ephemeral leaps of insight that spark truly original ideas. Humans generally prefer to listen to music made by artists they know and love (e.g. Taylor Swift or The Beatles). While AI can make music, it's unlikely to overtake the authenticity that artists have from their lived experiences.

3. AI Will Augment Jobs Before Eliminating Them

AI won’t replace you overnight, but it will change how people work instantly. Many roles become “AI-augmented” before they vanish. A manager might use AI to generate performance reports or track employee sentiment, or a teacher might employ AI tools to customise homework assignments for each student’s learning style. In these scenarios, employees become more productive, potentially reducing overall headcount because one person can handle what used to be multiple jobs.
Eventually, companies often prefer that model if a handful of AI-empowered specialists can do the job. It's more efficient in a purely financial sense. That doesn't mean entire professions disappear overnight, but it may compress the job market in certain areas, leaving fewer openings or lower wages.
For example, if a marketing job can be generated by one senior strategist plus AI, you don’t need 10 people in the marketing team. The upside is that the strategist can produce a lot more content. The downside is that nine other people are out of luck — unless they transition to a new specialty.

4. The Variance in Those Who Benefit or Lose Due to AI Will be Massive

Being Proactive Beats Panic. Ignoring AI or hoping it doesn't affect you is risky. Those who explore AI tools, develop hybrid skills, and position themselves in forward-thinking roles have a better chance of thriving.
Those who can adapt and capitalise on AI successfully will win big. Those that are slow to adapt or unable to pivot will be significantly impacted. Generally, technology creates significant disruptions in workforce dynamics and usually exacerbates inequality.

5. White collar will get replaced faster than blue-collar (in contrast to previous technology shifts)

In the past, white-collar jobs (e.g., office jobs and knowledge work) were more difficult to replicate than blue-collar jobs (jobs requiring manual labour or physical actions). For example, automating the automobile supply chain from humans welding parts to getting robots to weld parts was much more seamless than trying to get a robot to code. However, this is no longer the case with AI products like Chat GPT.

6. AI Likely Means Fewer Workers Overall

AI doesn’t just replace individual jobs — it reduces the total number of workers a company needs to stay competitive. That's the brutal truth. And this isn't some dystopian future we're discussing; it's happening right now, and New Zealand feels it. As an example, in 2024, Spark started to lay off jobs that AI is capable of handling.
Spark's restructuring to cut costs and improve efficiency is not an outlier – many companies will be looking at ways to improve their bottom line to improve their company efficiency.

7. AI Isn’t Perfect (Yet)

AI has gotten exponentially better in 2025 compared to 2022, but it’s far from perfect. AI models have plenty of limitations, from biases in training data to errors in understanding context. They can quickly handle repetitive work but rely on humans for ethical checks, big-picture thinking, and moral judgment.
Equally, many companies are slow to integrate AI into their daily company workflows as they are still learning the full capabilities of these tools.

8. Adoption Rates Vary among Companies

Some industries, especially big tech and finance, adopt AI rapidly. Others, like government agencies or smaller local businesses, often lag. This staggered timeline can give workers in slower-to-adapt sectors some breathing room to reskill (and may mean that job cuts may hit different sectors at different times).