AI is going to disrupt ‘white-collar’ industries, everyone is going to have to adapt - Dr Craig Johnson
It is tempting to think of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as something unprecedented or outside the patterns we recognise. History tells us otherwise. We have seen moments like this before. From the first Industrial Revolution, through mechanisation, automation and digitisation, each wave of technological change has reshaped how we work, how economies function and how societies organise themselves.
What we are seeing now with AI is the next phase of that same story. The difference is where the impact is being felt.
Previous industrial revolutions primarily affected manual and industrial labour, traditionally referred to as ‘blue-collar workers.’ This one will affect professional, knowledge-based work - in other words, so-called ‘white-collar workers’.
The danger is that tasks that were once considered core to early careers, to learning and development, such as administrative roles, report writing, data analysis, are already being automated.
As this trend accelerates, we risk seeing the hollowing out of the very roles that traditionally allowed people to enter and progress within professions.
That raises a fundamental question. If those entry points disappear, how do people gain experience? How do they develop the judgement required to operate at a higher level? And what replaces the ladder that has historically underpinned career progression?
These are the practical challenges that are beginning to emerge. We do not yet have clear answers. But what we do know is that this shift will be as profound as anything we have seen before.
In many ways, the comparison with the Industrial Revolution is instructive. When mechanisation began to replace manual labour, there was resistance. Jobs were lost, industries were reshaped, and communities had to adapt.
Over time, new forms of work emerged. Productivity increased. Living standards improved. But the transition was not immediate, nor was it painless. We are now at a similar juncture.
Artificial intelligence will not simply remove jobs. It will change them. It will alter the balance between human and machine capability. And in doing so, it will force us to rethink how skills are developed and applied.
For businesses, the implications are clear. Adopting AI is no longer optional. Organisations that fail to engage with it risk becoming inefficient and uncompetitive. At the same time, simply investing in technology without understanding how it fits into a broader strategy is unlikely to deliver meaningful results.
But for all its obvious benefits, AI is not a silver bullet. Its value depends entirely on how it is applied, whether organisations have the right data, and whether it aligns with their strategic goals. Without that, investment risks becoming expensive experimentation with little return.
For education providers, and especially universities, the challenges are equally significant but so too are the opportunities.
This week, we will host an AI Forum, with a keynote from Phil Le-Brun, an alum who works for Amazon Web Services. The session is intended for managers and executives, with a specific focus on how AI will affect business, AI governance and how it will impact society.
We need to think much more carefully about what skills will remain relevant and how individuals can continually adapt as technologies evolve.
If the nature of work is changing, then the way we prepare people for that work must change too. Traditional models, based on linear career pathways and long-term assumptions about roles, may no longer be sufficient.
Dr Craig Johnson is an associate professor at the University of Bradford.