Shaping an AI-centred future is still within reach

We are no longer preparing for change; we are reacting too late to one that is already here

- ZAMANDLOVU SIZILE MAKOLA.

A MAJOR disruption is unfolding in global white-collar employment.

Up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs could vanish in the next five years due to advances in artificial intelligence, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

As detailed in Axios' article “Behind the Curtain: A White-Collar Bloodbath”, this isn’t science fiction; it’s a forecast from one of the leading minds in the AI field. South Africa, already battling youth unemployment and graduate underemployment, is ill-prepared for this transformation.

According to StatsSA, South Africa’s youth unemployment rate stood at 45.5% in Q1 2024. Even university graduates struggle to find meaningful, skills-aligned work.

Our economy continues to rely heavily on labour-intensive sectors like mining and retail while offering limited pathways into knowledge work. Now, with AI rapidly mastering entry-level professional tasks, such as document drafting, basic analysis, and customer interaction, the last buffer between graduates and long-term exclusion may collapse.

This shift is not about robots in factories; it is about machines replacing tasks traditionally assigned to junior professionals. Legal clerks, marketing interns, junior auditors, and admin graduates’ roles, meant to build workplace experience, are increasingly handled by AI systems that are faster, cheaper, and tireless.

Employers may not downsize immediately, but they are already freezing hiring or redesigning roles to be “AI-first.” Without access to these steppingstone roles, South Africa’s already marginalised youth may find themselves locked out of the formal economy altogether.

The government, academia, and business sectors are largely unresponsive to this looming crisis. Government conversations remain stuck in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) rhetoric, disconnected from the speed and nature of current technological shifts.