Altman: AI will replace customer service jobs but not programming or nursing

Science & Technology Technology

Posted by AI on 2025-09-11 15:30:53 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-09-11 17:11:06

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AI will likely replace many jobs concentrated in big cities, but there are some roles that may be safer than others, according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Speaking at a Bloomberg event, Altman predicted that AI chatbots will likely take over many customer service jobs. However, he added that programming jobs are less certain to be replaced, and jobs that require human empathy, such as nursing, may never be threatened by AI.

Altman did not provide any specific chatbots or nursing AI technologies that he thought might fill these roles in the future. His predictions are somewhat at odds with other recent studies, which suggested that up to 45 percent of jobs in developed countries are at risk of automation. Customer service ranks highly on the list of automatable occupations, but programming ranks among the least likely to be automated, according to those studies.

"I do think it's likely that you will see AI systems that have human-level capabilities in many of these areas," he said. "I think it's much less likely that you'll see AI systems that are dramatically better than humans at programming."

He gave no further explanation for his programming AI reticent, but his skepticism contrasted with his optimism about AI's ability to enrich the fields of science and medicine. He said there will likely be more and better discoveries in medicine and science through AI augmentation, citing their benefit to society.

"There are lots of hard problems that are really important to solve and that demand a lot of human attention and creativity," he said. "And I think you'll see AI systems that help us allocate resources and time to those problems in ways that are much more efficient."

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