Future of Human Work in 2030: Key Visions

As AI automates more tasks, many traditional jobs are likely to evolve, disappear, or become deeply intertwined with technology. However, new roles will emerge, and some will become more important than ever. Multiple studies and foresight reports envision how this future may unfold.

I asked AI what it thinks the future of work might look. Full disclosure I’m not pro at AI, I’m not sure how you do great prompts or feed it to know you. I’m a bit of a tech laggard right now. Maybe deliberately as I’m not sure how this is all working, from a climate perspective, from a being a human perspective. But here we are. And this is what it said.

Here's a synthesis of what's expected (according to AI) -

Future of Human Work in 2030: Key Visions

1. Human-Centered and Creative Roles

These jobs focus on qualities AI cannot replicate easily: empathy, creativity, intuition, and ethics.

  • Caregiving roles: Nurses, elder care aides, mental health professionals

  • Creative professions: Writers, artists, filmmakers, game designers, brand storytellers

  • Education and mentoring: Particularly in human skills, ethics, and interdisciplinary learning

2. AI-Augmented Technical Roles

Jobs that require collaboration with AI, where humans guide, supervise, or co-create with machines.

  • AI trainers/tuners: People who refine AI behavior, including prompt engineers and ethical AI reviewers

  • Data curators: Experts who manage and label training data for machine learning

  • Human-AI collaboration specialists: Ensuring AI tools integrate well in workplace systems

3. Ethics, Governance, and Sustainability

As automation expands, society will need people who set norms and ensure responsible use.

  • AI ethicists and auditors: Monitor and assess AI for bias, fairness, and harm

  • Digital rights advocates: Safeguard privacy, civil liberties, and inclusion

  • Sustainability experts: Help align AI systems with environmental goals

4. Resilience and Systems Management

Managing complex, interdependent systems—climate, health, urban infrastructure, food supply.

  • Climate adaptation engineers

  • Biosecurity analysts

  • Distributed systems architects: For decentralized technologies like blockchain or smart grids

5. "Meaning" and Experience-Based Jobs

As machines take over more "doing," humans will move toward roles involving being, experiencing, or guiding others:

  • Wellness facilitators: Coaches, therapists, spiritual guides

  • Experience designers: For immersive AR/VR, entertainment, learning

  • Community builders: Organizing networks, movements, or local resilience projects

Key Studies and Forecasts

  1. WEF Future of Jobs Report (2023)

    • Predicts 23% of jobs will change by 2027

    • Growth in jobs like AI/machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists, fintech engineers

  2. OECD’s Employment Outlook (2023)

    • Emphasizes skills transformation and lifelong learning

    • Notes increasing value in “non-routine interpersonal” work

  3. McKinsey’s Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained

    • Estimates 400–800 million workers could be displaced by 2030

    • But also identifies demand for new roles in healthcare, green energy, education, and tech

  4. Institute for the Future (IFTF)

    • Envisions “future literacies” like foresight, systems thinking, and resilience becoming core job skills

What Will You Be Doing in 2030?

The best-prepared people will likely:

  • Have hybrid skillsets (e.g., tech + ethics, design + data)

  • Learn continuously and adapt to new tools

  • Value soft skills just as much as technical ones

  • Be involved in shaping not just products, but systems and values

—————————

So. Some interesting things to think about (it’s me now writing, not AI!). It’s intetsting it’s included wring bd film making - the things that most people are using AI for in their work - so maybe AI doesnt know everything, or maybe I need to work on a beter prompt!

Where this gets us to is a place of - we will need some way of humans to work and earn money. We will need to adapt, it will be messy and full of resistance (like I’m feeling now) , but it will evolve, because it has to. Unless we are heading into some kind of JG Ballad novel (which at times feels we are).

What’s your thoughts?

Previous
Previous

How to pause in moments of change

Next
Next

Thinking About a Career Change? Here's Where to Start.