I was lying in bed, unable to sleep. Again.
Not because of coffee. Because of fear.
ChatGPT had just launched and I, a data engineer known as the "Spark man" on LinkedIn, had just watched AI produce more content in 10 hours than I could in a month. 100 tips. 50 pages of ebook material. All from a tool that didn't exist a week ago.
My first thought: how can I still provide for myself and my family if everything I can do disappears?
I did what most people do when they're afraid. I stopped doing the thing that scared me. I stopped opening LinkedIn. Stopped creating content. Let imposter syndrome take over because suddenly every post looked so polished, so perfect. Bad idea.
That fear? It hasn't gone away. Every new AI milestone, from GPT-4 to Copilot to multi-agent frameworks, makes it worse. But I've learned something: the fear itself isn't the problem. What you do with it is.
Let's stop pretending we can predict exactly which jobs will "disappear." The reality is more nuanced: every job is changing. So "disappearing" is hard to define.
But here's the core truth that nobody wants to say out loud: if you work behind a computer and can't or won't use AI, you will lose your job. That's not fear-mongering. That's math.
I've seen it happen. Junior developers laid off because AI coding assistants made senior developers 10x more productive. Content writers replaced by teams using Claude and ChatGPT. Secretaries and personal assistants automated out of existence.
The layoffs aren't coming. They're already here.
Working with businesses across the Netherlands, I see clear patterns emerging. Here are the roles under the most pressure right now:
Secretaries and personal assistants. Scheduling, email management, travel booking, meeting notes. AI does all of this faster, cheaper, and without vacation days. Tools like Lindy.ai can handle an entire PA's workload for a fraction of the cost.
Content writers (the generic ones). If your entire value is "I write blog posts" without deep expertise or a unique voice, you're competing against tools that produce acceptable content in seconds. The writers who survive bring personal experience, industry knowledge, and sharp opinions that AI can't replicate.
Junior coders. This one hits close to home. I now build applications using VS Code with AI coding agents. My work barely consists of changing code manually anymore. Almost everything happens automatically. What used to take weeks now takes hours. Why hire three juniors when one senior with AI tools does more?
Data entry and admin roles. Anything that involves moving information from system A to system B. N8N, Make, Zapier. These tools connect everything. A workflow that took an admin 4 hours per day now runs automatically in the background.
Here's what most articles about "AI and jobs" get wrong. They focus on what disappears. The more important question is: what becomes more valuable?
Engineers and operators. We're going to need MORE software and data, not less. Someone needs to oversee AI systems, fix them when they break, and make sure they don't hallucinate their way into disaster. "AI replaces engineers" is one of the popular opinions I strongly disagree with.
Business owners. We're about to see an explosion of entrepreneurs. People get laid off, start their own thing, use AI to compete with established companies. The barrier to starting a business has never been lower. One person with the right AI stack can do what used to require a team of 20.
People who combine domain expertise with AI skills. A recruiter who uses AI to search smarter. An accountant who automates reporting. A marketer who builds AI-powered campaigns. The skill isn't "knowing AI." The skill is knowing your domain AND knowing how to apply AI to it.
Speed merchants. Right now, the edge isn't being the smartest. It's being the fastest. Everyone who moves quickly wins. The companies and individuals who adopt AI first, iterate fastest, and ship quickest will dominate their markets.
One of the AI opinions that annoys me the most is "AI is just a dumb text predictor." Here's why.
We humans are that too. In principle.
We make dumb mistakes. We lie multiple times per day. On your own, you're not that smart. Humanity's collective intelligence is our superpower. The coherent whole is what makes us remarkable.
AGI isn't here yet. But don't underestimate what's coming. If one ChatGPT is smarter than me at many tasks, what would 2, 5, or 10 agents working together do?
That question should keep every professional up at night. Not because it's hopeless, but because the answer determines whether you thrive or get left behind.
Stop reading articles about which jobs will disappear (yes, including this one) and start doing something. Here's my practical advice:
1. Start using AI today. Not next month. Today. Even if your company doesn't require it. Open Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity and start with something simple. Research, drafting emails, summarizing documents.
2. Become the AI person in your team. The employee who says "I built a workflow that saves us 3 hours per week" is the last one to get laid off.
3. Learn to work WITH AI, not compete against it. You won't be replaced by AI. You'll be replaced by someone who uses AI better than you.
4. Build skills that are hard to automate. Relationship building. Strategic thinking. Creative problem-solving with real-world context. Empathy. These are your insurance policy.
1. Stop saying you don't need AI. That's the number one dumb thing I see businesses do. Second dumbest: banning it entirely. Third: selling AI services to clients while using zero AI internally.
2. Calculate the real cost. A human employee costs salary, benefits, office space, management time. An AI agent costs a subscription. Do the math.
3. Start with the boring tasks. The best AI implementations aren't flashy. They're the tasks your team hates doing: data entry, scheduling, report generation, email follow-ups.
4. Get help if you're stuck. Most AI projects fail because companies don't know what they need, try ChatGPT once, and stop. A proper implementation takes 2-4 weeks and pays for itself within the first month.
Almost half of all businesses in their current form won't survive the next decade. Especially companies that do everything online, have no physical product, aren't customer-facing, and don't have hard IP or customer data as an edge. Agencies in particular are going to have an incredibly difficult time because companies will do much more themselves.
But that's not a death sentence. It's a wake-up call.
The businesses and professionals who will thrive are the ones who treat AI as a co-worker, not a threat. Who move fast, experiment often, and aren't afraid to change how they work.
I went from lying awake at night, terrified about my future, to running a company that helps others navigate the exact same fear. The difference wasn't that the fear went away. The difference was that I did something about it.
Your move.
Will AI take my job?
It depends. If your job is primarily behind a computer and involves repetitive tasks, AI will significantly change your role. The key is to adapt by learning to use AI tools that make you more productive rather than trying to compete against them.
What jobs are safe from AI?
No job is completely "safe," but roles requiring physical presence, deep human relationships, creative judgment, and strategic thinking are harder to automate. Think healthcare workers, skilled tradespeople, and leadership roles that require complex decision-making.
How quickly are jobs changing due to AI?
Very quickly. In the Netherlands alone, we're already seeing layoffs in junior development, content writing, and administrative roles. The pace will accelerate as AI tools become cheaper and more capable throughout 2026 and 2027.
What skills should I learn to stay relevant?
Focus on combining your domain expertise with AI proficiency. Learn to use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and automation platforms like N8N or Make. The most valuable skill isn't "knowing AI" but knowing how to apply AI to your specific field.
Is it too late to start learning about AI?
Absolutely not. Most businesses and professionals haven't started yet. Starting today puts you ahead of the majority. Even a simple step like using AI for daily research or email drafting builds the muscle you need.
Mitchell van Rijkom is the founder of AI Survivors, helping businesses and professionals navigate the AI revolution. He built the SURVIVE framework after experiencing firsthand the fear and uncertainty that AI brings to careers and companies.
I was lying in bed, unable to sleep. Again.
Not because of coffee. Because of fear.
ChatGPT had just launched and I, a data engineer known as the "Spark man" on LinkedIn, had just watched AI produce more content in 10 hours than I could in a month. 100 tips. 50 pages of ebook material. All from a tool that didn't exist a week ago.
My first thought: how can I still provide for myself and my family if everything I can do disappears?
I did what most people do when they're afraid. I stopped doing the thing that scared me. I stopped opening LinkedIn. Stopped creating content. Let imposter syndrome take over because suddenly every post looked so polished, so perfect. Bad idea.
That fear? It hasn't gone away. Every new AI milestone, from GPT-4 to Copilot to multi-agent frameworks, makes it worse. But I've learned something: the fear itself isn't the problem. What you do with it is.
Let's stop pretending we can predict exactly which jobs will "disappear." The reality is more nuanced: every job is changing. So "disappearing" is hard to define.
But here's the core truth that nobody wants to say out loud: if you work behind a computer and can't or won't use AI, you will lose your job. That's not fear-mongering. That's math.
I've seen it happen. Junior developers laid off because AI coding assistants made senior developers 10x more productive. Content writers replaced by teams using Claude and ChatGPT. Secretaries and personal assistants automated out of existence.
The layoffs aren't coming. They're already here.
Working with businesses across the Netherlands, I see clear patterns emerging. Here are the roles under the most pressure right now:
Secretaries and personal assistants. Scheduling, email management, travel booking, meeting notes. AI does all of this faster, cheaper, and without vacation days. Tools like Lindy.ai can handle an entire PA's workload for a fraction of the cost.
Content writers (the generic ones). If your entire value is "I write blog posts" without deep expertise or a unique voice, you're competing against tools that produce acceptable content in seconds. The writers who survive bring personal experience, industry knowledge, and sharp opinions that AI can't replicate.
Junior coders. This one hits close to home. I now build applications using VS Code with AI coding agents. My work barely consists of changing code manually anymore. Almost everything happens automatically. What used to take weeks now takes hours. Why hire three juniors when one senior with AI tools does more?
Data entry and admin roles. Anything that involves moving information from system A to system B. N8N, Make, Zapier. These tools connect everything. A workflow that took an admin 4 hours per day now runs automatically in the background.
Here's what most articles about "AI and jobs" get wrong. They focus on what disappears. The more important question is: what becomes more valuable?
Engineers and operators. We're going to need MORE software and data, not less. Someone needs to oversee AI systems, fix them when they break, and make sure they don't hallucinate their way into disaster. "AI replaces engineers" is one of the popular opinions I strongly disagree with.
Business owners. We're about to see an explosion of entrepreneurs. People get laid off, start their own thing, use AI to compete with established companies. The barrier to starting a business has never been lower. One person with the right AI stack can do what used to require a team of 20.
People who combine domain expertise with AI skills. A recruiter who uses AI to search smarter. An accountant who automates reporting. A marketer who builds AI-powered campaigns. The skill isn't "knowing AI." The skill is knowing your domain AND knowing how to apply AI to it.
Speed merchants. Right now, the edge isn't being the smartest. It's being the fastest. Everyone who moves quickly wins. The companies and individuals who adopt AI first, iterate fastest, and ship quickest will dominate their markets.
One of the AI opinions that annoys me the most is "AI is just a dumb text predictor." Here's why.
We humans are that too. In principle.
We make dumb mistakes. We lie multiple times per day. On your own, you're not that smart. Humanity's collective intelligence is our superpower. The coherent whole is what makes us remarkable.
AGI isn't here yet. But don't underestimate what's coming. If one ChatGPT is smarter than me at many tasks, what would 2, 5, or 10 agents working together do?
That question should keep every professional up at night. Not because it's hopeless, but because the answer determines whether you thrive or get left behind.
Stop reading articles about which jobs will disappear (yes, including this one) and start doing something. Here's my practical advice:
1. Start using AI today. Not next month. Today. Even if your company doesn't require it. Open Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity and start with something simple. Research, drafting emails, summarizing documents.
2. Become the AI person in your team. The employee who says "I built a workflow that saves us 3 hours per week" is the last one to get laid off.
3. Learn to work WITH AI, not compete against it. You won't be replaced by AI. You'll be replaced by someone who uses AI better than you.
4. Build skills that are hard to automate. Relationship building. Strategic thinking. Creative problem-solving with real-world context. Empathy. These are your insurance policy.
1. Stop saying you don't need AI. That's the number one dumb thing I see businesses do. Second dumbest: banning it entirely. Third: selling AI services to clients while using zero AI internally.
2. Calculate the real cost. A human employee costs salary, benefits, office space, management time. An AI agent costs a subscription. Do the math.
3. Start with the boring tasks. The best AI implementations aren't flashy. They're the tasks your team hates doing: data entry, scheduling, report generation, email follow-ups.
4. Get help if you're stuck. Most AI projects fail because companies don't know what they need, try ChatGPT once, and stop. A proper implementation takes 2-4 weeks and pays for itself within the first month.
Almost half of all businesses in their current form won't survive the next decade. Especially companies that do everything online, have no physical product, aren't customer-facing, and don't have hard IP or customer data as an edge. Agencies in particular are going to have an incredibly difficult time because companies will do much more themselves.
But that's not a death sentence. It's a wake-up call.
The businesses and professionals who will thrive are the ones who treat AI as a co-worker, not a threat. Who move fast, experiment often, and aren't afraid to change how they work.
I went from lying awake at night, terrified about my future, to running a company that helps others navigate the exact same fear. The difference wasn't that the fear went away. The difference was that I did something about it.
Your move.
Will AI take my job?
It depends. If your job is primarily behind a computer and involves repetitive tasks, AI will significantly change your role. The key is to adapt by learning to use AI tools that make you more productive rather than trying to compete against them.
What jobs are safe from AI?
No job is completely "safe," but roles requiring physical presence, deep human relationships, creative judgment, and strategic thinking are harder to automate. Think healthcare workers, skilled tradespeople, and leadership roles that require complex decision-making.
How quickly are jobs changing due to AI?
Very quickly. In the Netherlands alone, we're already seeing layoffs in junior development, content writing, and administrative roles. The pace will accelerate as AI tools become cheaper and more capable throughout 2026 and 2027.
What skills should I learn to stay relevant?
Focus on combining your domain expertise with AI proficiency. Learn to use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and automation platforms like N8N or Make. The most valuable skill isn't "knowing AI" but knowing how to apply AI to your specific field.
Is it too late to start learning about AI?
Absolutely not. Most businesses and professionals haven't started yet. Starting today puts you ahead of the majority. Even a simple step like using AI for daily research or email drafting builds the muscle you need.
Mitchell van Rijkom is the founder of AI Survivors, helping businesses and professionals navigate the AI revolution. He built the SURVIVE framework after experiencing firsthand the fear and uncertainty that AI brings to careers and companies.
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