Seven in 10 Americans think AI will lead to job losses, according to a March 2026 poll from Quinnipiac. Younger generations are particularly worried: 81% of Gen Zers and 71% of millennials think it will hurt their career prospects.
“It’s a very complicated issue,” Fordham economist Giacomo Santangelo, PhD, said at a Fordham Essential Insights event in March. “This is not [about] physical labor. This is not the traditional blue-collar worker who’s going to be affected by this—it’s the knowledge work. It’s your work, it’s my work.”
That doesn’t mean AI will take your job, though—or that you’re helpless to its impacts. Santangelo and Fordham grad Marc Valentin ’11, a human resources expert who leads the people analytics team at UBS, shared some tips on how to handle this workforce transformation.
See AI as a tool, not as a threat
When Microsoft launched its suite of office products in 1990, accountants and many other professionals thought it might spell the end of their careers, Santangelo said.
“But Word did not eliminate the need for writing, and Excel did not eliminate the need for financial analysis. What they did was raise the floor. They made everyone who mastered those specific skills more productive and more employable.”
Santangelo sees a similar opportunity with AI.
“Learn the tools that are emerging. Become the person who knows how to prompt effectively, how to catch the AI errors, how to apply professional judgment to AI output. This is the new floor of competency.”
“AI isn’t optional anymore,” Valentin added. “I think, largely, industry has put a big bet that this is going to be the next big thing that will transform their business. I would say the biggest advantage that anyone can really have in this is really being able to sell yourself—and you have to integrate AI into that story.”
Lean into the skills AI can’t replicate
When Valentin began his career in human resources in 2011, he created many PowerPoint presentations and ran reports that AI can do more effectively now.
“That frees up my capacity to ask the big questions, to spend more time with clients, to really skip what you could call ‘time wasters’ and things that would usually chip away at our capacity and mental energy,” he said.
Santangelo emphasized skills AI can’t replace: emotional intelligence, empathy, and the courage to question assumptions—values at the heart of a Fordham Jesuit education.
“AI isn’t really great at accountability,” he said. “There are ethical gray zones, complex situations that don’t have precedent, that don’t have clean answers.”
He encouraged people to “invest in client relationships, deepen your contextual expertise, [and] build your reputation as someone whose name on a decision means something.”
Shift from being an operator to being a director
Santangelo advised workers to move from “producing routine content to directing it.”
“AI is going to execute. You’re going to strategize, you’re going to judge, and you’re going to lead,” he said. “Start thinking of yourself as someone who sets directions, who applies judgments, who leads systems. AI will scale your output. Your value lies in knowing what to scale, why to scale it, and whether or not it’s right to do so at all. Judgment is an irreplaceable layer.”
Valentin encouraged people to ask themselves: “What does the best version of you look like now that AI is available?”
“Being able to craft that story, being able to say that you’re a better version of who you were a couple of years ago, because you now save a lot of time, you can creatively use AI to solve problems faster,” he said.
Santangelo noted that the “question is not whether AI is going to change your work—it’s already changed your work.”
“The question is whether or not you are going to lead that change.”
“Will AI Replace Me?” was part of the Essential Insights series co-sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations and the Assistant Provost for Corporate Relations. The next event is “Discursive Leadership: Communicating Your Value Clearly and Credibly” on Wednesday, May 20, at 6:30 p.m.
