Automation is coming. Invest in yourself. Polish and learn new skills. Stay current in your field. Good advice but will automation really replace workers or just shift most of them?

The World Economic Forum predicts that automation will displace 85 million global jobs by 2025. The shift to remote work could be an even bigger driver of job displacement in the near term.

But the research arm of McKinsey & Company suggests that the near-term impact of automation will be to redefine jobs rather than to eliminate them.

McKinsey predicts that of the 49.1 million who will have their jobs displaced by automation, 32 million will stay in the same occupation, and another 2.2 million will stay in the same occupational category. The number of people who will lose their jobs in the “have to find a new line of work” sense is only 14.9 million. Not 27 percent, but 9 percent.

Brent M. Jones

Brent writes with quiet confidence and curiosity, exploring communication, reinvention, and what truly matters. His reflections invite readers to slow down, reconsider their stories, and reconnect with the values that guide them. Through books, essays, and his What Matters Substack Articles and Notes, he offers writing that doesn’t shout—but still speaks clearly.