AI is slashing white-collar jobs fast. Jane, a 45-year-old HR worker in the Bay Area, lost her $70,000 role in January after her company automated her tasks. She had been on track for a promotion but got cut as soon as AI tools rolled in.
She described one AI job interview in February like this:
> “It was kind of like having an interview with an automated voicemail,”
> “The ‘robot’ asked me questions and gave generic replies. No chance to move forward.” 
Jane spent months unemployed before landing a government job in April and then a sales gig recently. She says the white-collar job market is tanking.
Tech workers are feeling it, too. Shawn K, a 42-year-old full-stack engineer from Central New York, lost his $150,000 job in March after his AI-driven company pivot. He started DoorDash deliveries to survive, faced 800+ job rejections, and only recently secured a contract role.
Shawn shared this blunt take:
> “AI is a better programmer than me, but that doesn’t mean I have no value.”
> “I can now do 100 times more and solve problems I wouldn’t have before.”
Still, he warns:
> “Anyone whose job is done on a computer all day is over. It’s just a matter of time.”
Even outside tech, AI is killing businesses. Brian Ream, 46, ran a small medical translation service but lost clients to AI tools like ChatGPT. He fears bad info from AI translations could be dangerous but thinks schools should teach students AI’s limits.
> “You cannot stop this from happening,” Ream said.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs in five years and push unemployment to 10-20%.
The AI job purge is here—and it’s hitting hard.
