These Are the Jobs Young People Are Choosing to Protect Themselves from AI
From electricians to firefighters to açai bowl entrepreneurs, young Americans are pivoting careers based on one fear: AI taking their jobs.
Jackson Curtis spent 3½ years building a career in insurance. Now he’s walking away to become a firefighter. The 28-year-old, who lives outside Tacoma, Washington, told The Wall Street Journal that he fears AI is coming for his office job.
Curtis isn’t being paranoid. Nearly 60% of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a recent Harvard survey. Stanford research found that employment among workers ages 22 to 25 in AI-exposed jobs — like software developers and customer service agents — declined 16% between late 2022 and September 2025.
The response? Young workers are pivoting to AI-proof careers in blue-collar trades, entrepreneurship and emergency services. For example, Ryder Paredes, 22, dropped out of computer science last year to study electrical work. Luke St. Amand, 25, quit his six-figure Amazon AI job to start an education company, worried he was “training his replacement.”
Jackson Curtis spent 3½ years building a career in insurance. Now he’s walking away to become a firefighter. The 28-year-old, who lives outside Tacoma, Washington, told The Wall Street Journal that he fears AI is coming for his office job.
Curtis isn’t being paranoid. Nearly 60% of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a recent Harvard survey. Stanford research found that employment among workers ages 22 to 25 in AI-exposed jobs — like software developers and customer service agents — declined 16% between late 2022 and September 2025.
The response? Young workers are pivoting to AI-proof careers in blue-collar trades, entrepreneurship and emergency services. For example, Ryder Paredes, 22, dropped out of computer science last year to study electrical work. Luke St. Amand, 25, quit his six-figure Amazon AI job to start an education company, worried he was “training his replacement.”
