3 healthcare jobs at very low risk of replacement by AI

This past summer McKinsey Global Institute projected almost one-third of workplace activities in the U.S. will be automated by 2030, driving something like 12 million “occupational transitions.”

Most of the change will be facilitated by AI.

Generative AI is quickening the pace, McKinsey noted, and the advance of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is adding to the anxiety.

However, some jobs are well out of AI’s reach no matter how adept the technology becomes.

This week Yahoo Finance identifies 20 such roles. They include three specific to healthcare, as follows (with comments from Yahoo reporter Afifa Mushtaque):

Nurses.

“Human touch and intuition are vital in nursing, and AI can't fully replicate these capabilities. Besides, when one is sick, the warmth of human support becomes essential. Thus, nursing is one of the jobs AI will probably never replace.”

Surgeons.

“Surgeons can adapt to unexpected complications and make real-time decisions, which is crucial in complex procedures. Furthermore, surgeries often require delicate and precise movements, which are challenging for AI to observe accurately [and for unassisted robots to replicate]. Surgery is thus one of the professions least likely to be replaced by AI.”

Mental health counselors.

“AI lacks the capacity to truly empathize with or understand the complexity of human emotions and the context in which they arise. Moreover, the therapeutic relationship, built on trust and rapport, is a fundamental aspect of successful counseling, and it is challenging for AI to establish such connections. It is one of the important jobs artificial intelligence can’t replace.”

The list includes two jobs that could rightly be called healthcare-adjacent—emergency responders and social workers.

Mushtaque says Yahoo Finance made the present safe-job forecast by identifying work that can’t be done without three attributes: nuanced human sensibilities, original creative thinking and/or adaptable physical dexterity.

Meanwhile, in its report of this past summer, McKinsey predicted automation will affect a broad set of work activities involving expertise, interaction with people and, yes, even creativity.

“Without generative AI, our research estimated, automation could take over tasks accounting for 21.5% of the hours worked in the U.S. economy by 2030,” the McKinsey authors wrote. “With it, that share has now jumped to 29.5%.”

The full Yahoo Finance article is here.