Worried AI could replace your job? These 10 careers are among the safest – Yahoo Creators

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming for every job equally.

That’s something I’ve been thinking about more since I recently looked at the jobs AI is most likely to disrupt — and what workers in those fields can do now to prepare. The obvious follow-up question was a little more reassuring: Which jobs are actually safest?

A new analysis by IT support provider Hamilton Group offers some answers, and there’s a pattern that’s hard to miss.

Eight of the 10 occupations considered least vulnerable to AI replacement are in healthcare or social services. Emergency medical technicians and paramedics came in with a 0% automation risk in the analysis. Registered nurses were at just 6.9%. Nurse practitioners were below 10%.

And these aren’t necessarily jobs where AI has no place. In many cases, the researchers found plenty of opportunity for AI to help people do their jobs.

It just isn’t particularly good at replacing the person doing them.

The timing is notable. A sweeping McKinsey Global Institute report released Sept. 29 estimates that roughly 11 million U.S. workers in declining occupations may need to transition into different jobs by 2035 as AI, automation and other changes reshape the workforce. McKinsey says that could require around 770,000 people to switch occupational groups every year.

So if millions of people eventually have to rethink what they do for a living, where are the safer places to go?

Hamilton Group analyzed 60 professions with an AI automation risk below 45%, comparing occupation responsibilities with AI augmentation data from the Anthropic Economic Index, along with current employment and wage figures.

These 10 came out on top, according to the analysis.

1. Emergency medical technicians

• AI automation risk: 0%

• Median annual wage: $44,000

• U.S. employment: 181,000

Emergency medical technicians tied for the lowest automation risk of any occupation in the analysis.

It isn’t hard to see why. An EMT responding to a car crash, heart attack or medical emergency has to assess what’s happening in real time, physically treat a patient and react when a situation changes unexpectedly.

There are still parts of the job AI could make easier. The healthcare practitioner group had a 58.4% AI augmentation rate in the study, meaning AI may increasingly assist with portions of the work. For EMTs, that could include administrative duties such as documenting what happened after a call.

Demand for the profession also isn’t disappearing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of EMTs and paramedics to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 18,200 openings each year.

2. Paramedics

• AI automation risk: 0%

• Median annual wage: $61,000

• U.S. employment: 101,000

Paramedics were the only other occupation in the analysis with a 0% automation risk.

Like EMTs, they work in situations where conditions can change in seconds and the job requires both physical intervention and immediate judgment.

AI could still take on some of the less hands-on work. Hamilton Group points to report writing as one example of a task that could potentially be streamlined after a shift rather than during an emergency.

3. Physicians

• AI automation risk: 4.5%

• Median annual wage: $266,000

• U.S. employment: 343,000

Physicians have the highest median pay of any occupation in the top 10, while their automation risk came in at just 4.5%.

Healthcare is also one of the areas where AI is already being adopted rapidly. Tools can assist with documentation, analyze medical information and help doctors sort through large amounts of patient data.

Hamilton Group assigned the broader healthcare practitioner category a 58.4% AI augmentation rate, suggesting AI could become a significant part of how these professionals work without eliminating the people doing the jobs.

For physicians, the highest-value parts of the work still include interpreting information, making treatment decisions and managing patients whose symptoms and circumstances rarely fit neatly into a template.

4. Mental health and substance abuse social workers

• AI automation risk: 4.5%

• Median annual wage: $60,000

• U.S. employment: 133,000

Mental health and substance abuse social workers also came in with a 4.5% automation risk.

Hamilton Group used a 60% AI augmentation rate for the broader community and social service occupation group, meaning AI may be able to assist with a substantial amount of work across the category without necessarily replacing the workers themselves.

For social workers, that could mean help with documentation, organizing case information or other administrative tasks.

But working directly with someone dealing with addiction, mental health challenges or a crisis involves reading behavior, building trust and responding to circumstances that can change quickly.

5. Child, family and school social workers

• AI automation risk: 6.7%

• Median annual wage: $60,000

• U.S. employment: 393,000

Child, family and school social workers came next, with a 6.7% automation risk.

They’re also one of the largest groups on the list, with nearly 400,000 people employed in the field.

Their work can involve everything from helping families access services to responding to child welfare concerns, coordinating with schools and navigating government programs.

AI may be useful for organizing information and reducing paperwork, but many of these situations require someone to understand complicated family dynamics and make decisions based on far more than what’s written in a file.

6. Registered nurses

• AI automation risk: 6.9%

• Median annual wage: $98,000

• U.S. employment: 3.4 million

Registered nursing stands out simply because of its size.

There are millions of registered nurses working in the U.S., making it by far the largest occupation in Hamilton Group’s top 10.

And despite all the discussion about AI transforming healthcare, the study puts the occupation’s automation risk at just 6.9%.

BLS also projects registered nursing employment to keep growing over the next decade, with roughly 195,000 additional jobs expected by 2035.

Nurses spend much of their day doing things that are difficult to separate from the physical world: monitoring patients, administering care, noticing changes in someone’s condition, communicating with families and responding when something suddenly goes wrong.

7. Clinical and counseling psychologists

• AI automation risk: 9.8%

• Median annual wage: $101,000

• U.S. employment: 76,000

Clinical and counseling psychologists are the first occupation on the list after physicians to cross the $100,000 median-pay mark.

Their appearance is especially interesting at a time when people are increasingly using AI chatbots for everything from companionship to conversations about mental health.

The Hamilton analysis still puts psychologists’ automation risk below 10%.

AI may be useful for administrative work, note-taking and other supporting tasks, but therapy depends heavily on context, judgment and the relationship between clinician and patient.

8. Nurse practitioners

• AI automation risk: 9.9%

• Median annual wage: $132,000

• U.S. employment: 323,000

Nurse practitioners may be one of the most interesting careers on the list for anyone thinking seriously about where job growth is headed.

The Hamilton analysis puts their AI automation risk at 9.9%, while median annual pay comes in around $132,000.

Then there’s the growth.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nurse practitioner employment to increase about 41% between 2025 and 2035, making it one of the fastest-growing occupations in the country.

BLS expects employment to climb from roughly 336,000 jobs to around 474,000 over the decade.

The agency also lists adaptability, interpersonal skills and problem-solving and decision-making among the occupation’s most important skills.

9. General internal medicine physicians

• AI automation risk: 9.9%

• Median annual wage: $257,000

• U.S. employment: 67,000

General internal medicine physicians came in just below the 10% automation-risk mark and have the second-highest median salary on the list at about $257,000.

This is another profession where AI is likely to change how the work gets done long before it eliminates the person doing it.

Doctors can use AI to summarize patient histories, surface potential patterns and assist with documentation. But an internal medicine physician may be treating someone with several conditions at once, medications that interact and symptoms that don’t point neatly toward a single diagnosis.

The technology can help process information. The physician still has to decide what to do with it.

10. Coaches and scouts

• AI automation risk: 10.3%

• Median annual wage: $47,000

• U.S. employment: 249,000

Coaches and scouts are the only occupation in the top 10 that doesn’t fall into healthcare or social services.

AI can already analyze statistics, game footage and player performance far faster than a person could on their own.

But those tools don’t remove the human side of coaching: figuring out how to motivate individual players, handling personalities, responding during a game and knowing when the numbers aren’t telling the entire story.

And that gets at what may be the most interesting takeaway from the entire study.

The jobs least vulnerable to AI don’t necessarily avoid AI. Many are likely to use quite a lot of it.

For more stories about work, money and the ways AI is changing everyday life, follow my Yahoo page.