53% of American Career Changers Anxious About AI Which Jobs Are Safe?

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — New research from The TEFL Academy reveals which careers are most resilient to AI, as 53% of US respondents report anxiety about its impact on their future careers.

Key Findings:
• 53% are anxious about AI’s impact on their future career opportunities.
• 61% have questioned whether their chosen career or degree will still be valuable because of AI.
• 83% say AI has already changed how they think about their future career, including 39% who say it has changed their thinking significantly.
• Work-life balance is the leading factor when choosing a career, selected by 29% of respondents, followed by job security at 18% and making a positive impact at 17%.
• 57% say AI resilience is very or extremely important when considering a career.
• 63% believe human skills will become more valuable as AI becomes more common in the workplace.
• 78% expect AI literacy to become as important as computer literacy.
• 81% say they would be likely to participate in AI training or upskilling.
• 58% believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next decade.
• Teacher/Educator scores 95 out of 100 in The TEFL Academy’s AI Resilience Index.

83% of American career changers say artificial intelligence has changed how they think about their future careers, while 61% have questioned whether their career or degree will still be valuable because of AI, according to new research from The TEFL Academy. The findings come as the World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of workers’ core skills will change by 2030, alongside a projected 170 million new jobs and 92 million displaced jobs globally.

The findings form part of United States Career Resilience Report 2026, which examines how artificial intelligence is influencing career anxiety, skills and perceptions of long-term career value among Americans considering their next career move. The research combines an original survey of US-based students, graduates, professionals and career changers with third-party labour market, occupational, education and AI research. The analysis draws on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (https://www.bls.gov/), O*NET OnLine (https://www.onetonline.org/), and World Economic Forum (https://www.weforum.org/), among others.

The research found that 83% say AI has changed how they think about their future career, including 39% who say it has changed their thinking significantly. At the same time, 61% have questioned whether their chosen career or degree will still be valuable because of AI.

The survey research found that 54% are moderately, very or extremely anxious about AI, although 53% remain confident that their career or degree will provide good job opportunities over the next 10 years. At the same time, 77% expect AI literacy to become as important as computer literacy, while 60% say they would be very likely to take free AI training.

AI is changing career decisions
For career changers reassessing their options, AI is becoming another factor in deciding whether a qualification or profession will retain its value.

The findings suggest that this is not simply a question of whether AI will eliminate jobs. Instead, career changers are having to consider how much of their work could be automated, which skills will remain valuable and how easily they can adapt as technology changes the way jobs are performed.

That shift is reflected in the wider labour market. The World Economic Forum forecasts 170 million new jobs (https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/digest/#:~:text=This%20is%20expected%20to%20entail%20the%20creation%20of%20new%20jobs%20equivalent%20to%2014%25%20of%20today%E2%80%99s%20total%20employment%2C%20amounting%20to%20170%20million%20jobs) and 92 million displaced jobs (https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/digest/#:~:text=However%2C%20this%20growth%20is%20expected%20to%20be%20offset%20by%20the%20displacement%20of%20the%20equivalent%20of%208%25%20(or%2092%20million)%20of%20current%20jobs) by 2030, resulting in a net increase of 78 million jobs (https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/digest/#:~:text=resulting%20in%20net%20growth%20of%207%25%20of%20total%20employment%2C%20or%2078%20million%20jobs.) . Its research also identifies analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership and social influence among the skills employers expect to remain important.

The OECD similarly finds that fewer than 1% of workers need advanced AI-specific skills (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/ai-and-skills_f843b352-en/full-report.html#:~:text=fewer%20than%201%25%20of%20workers%20need%20advanced%20AI%20skills%2C%20while%20most%20require%20digital%20skills%2C%20and%20the%20ability%20to%20use%2C%20analyse%20and%20interpret%20data.%20Alongside%20this%2C%20managerial%20skills%20and%20human%20skills%20such%20as%20problem%2Dsolving%2C%20creativity%20and%20innovation%20remain%20important.) , while digital skills, data interpretation, problem-solving, creativity and innovation are increasingly important. Around 40% of employers in manufacturing and finance (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/ai-and-skills_f843b352-en/full-report.html#:~:text=40%25%20of%20employers%20in%20manufacturing%20and%20finance%20cite%20skills%20as%20the%20main%20barrier%20to%20adoption%2C%20and%20over%20half%20of%20SMEs%20not%20using%20generative%20AI.) that have not adopted AI cite a lack of skills as a major barrier.

Despite concerns about the impact of AI, the research suggests that career changers are not simply waiting for the labour market to change around them. 81% say they would be likely to participate in AI training or upskilling, suggesting a strong willingness to develop new skills as technology changes the workplace.

78% also believe AI literacy will become as important as computer literacy, highlighting how quickly AI skills are becoming part of the wider career conversation.

The careers built around human skills
Against this backdrop, The TEFL Academy developed its AI-Proof Careers Index, scoring 100 occupations according to factors including human interaction, emotional intelligence, creativity, critical thinking, automation risk, labour-market demand, skills shortages and projected job growth.

The survey findings reinforce the importance of skills that allow people to work effectively alongside AI. 63% believe human skills will become more valuable as AI becomes more common in the workplace, suggesting that capabilities such as judgement, communication, adaptability and emotional intelligence could become an increasingly important part of career resilience.

The highest-scoring careers in the US index are concentrated in healthcare, skilled trades and emergency services, with roles requiring physical presence, complex judgement, responsibility and human interaction occupying much of the top of the rankings.

The top 10 are:
1. Surgeon: 98
2. Nurse Practitioner: 97
3. Therapist / Psychologist: 97
4. Physician / Doctor: 96
5. Skilled Tradesperson: 96
6. Teacher / Educator: 95
7. Emergency Medical Technician: 95
8. Social Worker: 95
9. Occupational Therapist: 94
10. Physical Therapist: 94

The pattern is consistent across the index. Careers that depend heavily on human interaction, physical presence, specialist expertise and high-stakes decision-making score towards the top, while occupations involving more structured and repeatable tasks appear towards the lower end.

The report is not intended to suggest that lower-scoring occupations will disappear. Instead, it identifies where the nature of work may face greater pressure to change as AI develops.

Teaching ranks among the most resilient careers
Teacher / Educator ranks sixth overall, with an AI-Proof Score of 95, placing teaching among the highest-scoring careers in the US index.

The report attributes teaching’s resilience to the combination of skills involved in the role, including communication, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, leadership, adaptability, critical thinking and problem-solving.

The wider skills index reinforces this finding. Critical thinking and complex problem-solving both score 99, followed by emotional intelligence and ethical decision-making at 98. Creativity, strategic thinking, leadership, communication and adaptability also feature among the highest-scoring capabilities.

Teaching also provides an example of how AI can change a profession without removing the human role. AI can support lesson planning, content creation and personalized learning, while teachers remain responsible for understanding individual learners, responding to changing needs, building confidence and managing the classroom.

The experience of teachers is already changing alongside technology. OECD TALIS data cited in the report shows that 37% of lower-secondary teachers used AI in their work in 2024 (https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/news/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2026-how-generative-ai-can-support-learning-when-used#:~:text=In%202024%2C%2037%25%20of%20lower%20secondary%20teachers%20reported%20using%20AI%20in%20their%20work), while 57% said AI improves lesson planning (https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/en/latest/news/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2026-how-generative-ai-can-support-learning-when-used#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20(57%25)%20agree%20that%20AI%20helps%20them%20write%20or%20improve%20lesson%20plans).

Tiffany Probasco-Francis, an American TEFL instructor and The TEFL Academy alumna, said:
“I think more language teaching will be around appropriateness for contexts. Language is a living organism. It moves and changes with the times and instructors need to keep up with it and help students navigate it in order for students to feel confident in making the language their own.”

More than half expect AI to eliminate more jobs than it creates
Concerns about AI also extend beyond individual career choices. 58% of respondents believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next decade, highlighting wider uncertainty about how automation will reshape the US labour market.

For career changers, that uncertainty makes the question of where to move next increasingly important, particularly as some occupations become more exposed to automation while others continue to rely heavily on human judgement, interaction and physical expertise.

The US labour market is also shifting
The report’s US analysis identifies healthcare, education and skilled trades among the areas projected to experience the fastest growth, based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

This aligns with the World Economic Forum’s global outlook, which identifies care roles, educators and other core-economy occupations alongside technology roles among areas expected to grow.

For career changers, the implication is that future career resilience may depend less on finding a profession that AI cannot affect and more on developing a combination of technical literacy and skills that allow people to work effectively alongside increasingly capable technology.

What does an AI-resilient career look like?
The report’s findings point towards a labour market in which human skills and AI literacy increasingly need to work together.

Rather than treating AI as a binary choice between jobs that survive and jobs that disappear, the research suggests that career changers may benefit from understanding how technology will change the tasks within their profession while building capabilities that remain valuable when situations require judgement, communication, creativity, adaptability or human connection.

Rhyan O’Sullivan, Managing Director at The TEFL Academy, said:
“AI is creating a new kind of career calculation. People are no longer simply asking which jobs are available today. They’re asking whether the career or qualification they invest in now will still be valuable in ten years’ time.”

“What’s particularly interesting is that our findings don’t suggest people are simply afraid of AI. Instead, they are thinking more carefully about what makes a career resilient and which skills will help them adapt as the world of work changes.”

Teaching English provides one example of this model. It combines communication and cultural awareness with emotional intelligence, adaptability, leadership and problem-solving, while offering an accessible route into an internationally oriented career.

For the full report, visit United States Career Resilience Report 2026

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About The TEFL Academy
The TEFL Academy is a leading global provider of accredited TEFL, or Teaching English as a Foreign Language, training. With a global community of more than 200,000 graduates, the Academy provides recognised qualifications, career support and access to opportunities to teach English online and around the world.

Notes to Editors
The United States Career Resilience Report 2026 combines original survey research examining how AI is influencing career confidence and career decision-making, third-party labour market and education data, AI and future-of-work research, and The TEFL Academy’s original AI Resilience Index.

Leandré Morake
The TEFL Academy
leandre@theteflacademy.com

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