Over two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus coined the phrase: “Change is the only constant.” This observation has remained true since his death, but change is now happening even more rapidly, largely thanks to generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) technology such as ChatGPT or Claude. And that’s making many workers even more anxious than usual. But there is also good news for those who want to learn.
“Change is always stressful,” Liz Bentley, a work and career consultant at Liz Bentley Associates in New York, told FOX Business. The British Industrial Revolution of the 1700s was also stressful. New industries put people out of work, but new jobs were created. “At the start of the industrial revolution, people didn’t know there would be new jobs,” she says. We now know that 18th-century inventions, including steam trains and power weaving, brought prosperity to Britain and later to other economies.
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Smartphone AI assistant applications: OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude. (Getty Images/Getty Images)
The AI generation is taking change to a new level. “It’s happening fast and furious,” Bentley says. “There are so many things that AI can usurp.” It makes workers anxious in a new way. People don’t know what changes will happen in the workplace. “There’s a lack of predictability,” she says. Gen-AI is the branch of artificial intelligence that creates content rather than simply analyzing data.
A few years ago, job losses were often due to employee performance. Now it is frequently AI replaces labor. Data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas reveals that Gen-AI was directly involved in laying off 54,000 people in 2025. The idea was to let AI handle repetitive tasks, such as data collection. It’s no wonder that about 30% of workers fear losing their jobs as AI agents take over, according to Bentley.
Job losses can seem extremely scary to many people. But the reality is that the AI generation is here to stay, and there are plenty of reasons to stop worrying.
A General Motors employee is shown on the assembly line at General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township assembly plant, February 21, 2020, in Lansing, Michigan. The plant, which employs more than 2,500 workers, is home to the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enc. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images / Getty Images)
First, investors have invested a huge amount of money to make AI work. Private and venture capital investments in the United States totaled $109 billion. Last year, similar investors invested another $194 billion. Simply put, these investors are betting heavily on the future of AI, and they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think it had a strong future.
In the United States, 28.3% of the working-age population used generative artificial intelligence, or about three in ten workers in the second half of 2025, according to Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute. The United States was well ahead of the average global consumption by 16.3% during the same period.
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Business people at their desks in a busy open office. Startup business people working in modern office. (iStock)
While AI has so far led to layoffs, it has also created many new jobs that most of us would never have dreamed of. Last year, about 280,000 new jobs in Gen-AI were created for people, according to Electro IQ Job Creation Stats. Some of these jobs were for people involved in AI training, data analysis, and Gen-AI ethics specialists.
Another positive point is that humans working with AI agents are much more productive. The amount of work done by humans assisted by Gen-AI has changed a lot, Bentley says. But more importantly, workers are now more productive. It’s especially beneficial for people without advanced degrees or who lack experience, she says.
People walk the halls of the Equinix data center in Ashburn, Virginia. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The most important tip for taking advantage of these new roles seems to be a willingness to learn. “These opportunities will include people adopting new technology,” Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital in St. Louis, Missouri, told FOX Business. “And AI can make you a lot more creative.”
This creativity comes to life in part because people working with AI have to think. Part of this involves critical thinking, which involves questioning answers and questioning perceived wisdom. “It requires a human being,” says Ellerbroek.
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Ellerbroek says the best way to start learning is to use Gen-AI Agentslike the basic version of ChatGPT. With this basic knowledge, upgrading to a paid version will be easier. “It’s definitely better,” he said. “You need to double-check the result.”
