How AI is Changing the Job Market: Essential Tips for Professionals to Stay Relevant

A couple of years ago, in the last quarter of every year, content writers, SEO agencies & professionals, and graphics designers do tons of gigs and run up good numbers in sales and profits. But today, AI does most of these stuff and those professionals (of which I am included) do not get that much influx of gigs as before.

However, AI tools were intended to be of “assistance” to professionals and not necessarily take over their jobs completely; but, it seems the intended purpose is taking a different turn. So, what can you do, as a professional in your field, to remain relevant and not lose out to the plethora of AI tools being used in your niche? Well, let’s take a deep dive into realistic insights and tips!

How Bad Has AI Affected the Job Market?

Ask professionals, specifically content writers and graphics designers, and they’d sit you down to bemoan how AI has affected their job rates and other stuff – until they found a way out (for those that did).

Statistically, 47% of digital marketers use AI tools to generate content for ads and sales promotions, and 28% of the same professionals use AI to generate design elements, too – SiegeMedia. Now, this implies that AI tools are contributing to up to 47% decline in job requests for human writers who are focused on producing ad & sales copies for digital marketers.

Moving away from content writing and graphics designs, Linqto reports that AI has replaced about 1.7 million workers in some manual, task-oriented, and repetitive occupations, and it is projected to rally up the numbers to about 20 million by 2030. Now, that’s a massive count and calls for “upping” one’s game if you’re a professional in an AI-targeted niche.

Is AI a Game Changer for Professionals or a THREAT?

Honestly, whether AI would be a game changer for you – a professional – or a threat, depends on how you adapt to the ongoing global evolution of the job market. If you accept that the job market is evolving and gear up, then, AI tools would rather be a “Game Changer” for you, than a threat. But if you’re lackadaisical about the whole thing, it won’t be long until you’re completely out of jobs!

Yes, professionals can leverage AI tools to harness some deep insights into their niche or sector and unlock more potentials they never knew they had.

For example, a professional content writer can get a good generative AI tool to help him/her come up with quick outlines and “article flow” suggestions, and then the writer can get to work; this way, the writer would spend less time on crafting outlines and article structures, and spend more time in actual research.

Of course, a writer may pass a prompt to an AI tool to write on a topic, so he can have a clearer view of the topic – especially when the topic to be written seems a tough one the writer hasn’t done before. So, instead of blatantly missing out on the gig, the writer will now have to read the AI-generated content to have a better understanding of the topic, and then rewrite a unique content.

Now, these are just a few of the many ways a professional writer can leverage AI to deliver his craft more faster and in a more unique manner – after combining several points of view as generated by AI tools.

Similarly, if we talk about graphics design, AI tools can be used to generate concepts for a design, including color suggestions, elements usage, and a couple of other stuff. AI tools, in the hands of a professional, can be very much useful and can help the professional to achieve even more efficiency, while reducing turnaround times.

What Jobs are Threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools and Software?

Pretty much I’ve been talking about content writing and graphics designing because these are the two top niches overwhelmed by AI tools. But then, artificial intelligence software programs are being integrated by manufacturing companies, production companies, data centers, IT firms, schools, and healthcare businesses, to tackle repetitive tasks, and some perceived jobs that require higher efficiency (by eliminating human errors). Having noted these points, the following jobs are inarguably threatened by the surge of AI tools:

• Content writing
• Graphics design
• Website design and SEO
• Virtual assistants
• Cloud computing
• Data analysts
• IT experts
• Networking and management
• Programming & software development
• Accounting

What Professionals Must Do To Stay Relevant

Regardless of your niche and sector, if you feel your job is threatened by the non-stop blossoming of AI tools, here are some tips to keep you atop of the GAME.

1. Improve Your Technical Skills

Now, this is very important. These AI tools work with prompts – more like computers – and you get the result of what you put in. So, take time to study the relevant AI tools that can be used in your niche: learn the prompts, understand the terms of usage, and try to see “EVERYTHING” the tool can possibly do – do your research on this and make sure to improve on the technical skills you possess at the moment to beat whatever the AI tools are producing.

2. Familiarize Yourself With Many AI Tools

Yeah, that’s it! ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DALL-E, and lots of them. Try to get your hands on these tools and what they can do. Use them, and find their flaws. Yes, all these tools have limitations, so focus on those limitations and ensure you can do better. You might want to check out as many AI tools as you can.

3. Adapt and Improve

You might check out these tools and discover they do your job better than you, hahaha, don’t feel bad about that, it should rather, be a fuel to stir up your motivation to become a better version of yourself. Take those courses, join webinars, get more books for your course, and improve – until you’re inarguably a better version of whatever those AI tools can put out.

4. Stay Abreast

Oh hey! These AI tools get regular updates, if you think you beat the last version, the new version may come with updates that will throw you out of your job position. So, stay abreast with the latest trends in AI tools and make sure to update the ones you’re using.

What More?

I mean, what else is left? You’ve got to improve – that’s the summary. I must tell you, AI tools have their flaws, lots of that actually, but you won’t figure them out if you don’t use them first. So, find the ones that are usable in your niche and explore what they have to offer, then improve on that – you can always do better!

AI is meant to augment professionals’ efforts and not replace professionals. But when a professional refuses to embrace the evolution of the job market, then these AI tools would be glad to replace the professional. Hoping you get a two-piece from this. Do have a great day.

Oh, okay! This research article is from my personal perspective as a professional freelance writer who has never left his PC screen for up to a straight 72 hours for many years and counting – always writing.

Author Bio

Samuel .E. Odamah is a professional writer, who has been writing since 2017. His steady devotion to writing led him to launch Dopitech where he shares tech tips and tutorials. He is also a senior editor at 3ptechies and has worked with over 300 clients (including blogs, agencies, companies, and local businesses) on freelance and short-term contract gigs. Aside from writing, editing, and proofreading, Samuel finds pleasure in football and video games.