AI Is Taking the Place Where Beginners Learn

Originally written in Traditional Chinese: AI 吃掉的，不是新人的工作

My take: AI is not taking young people's first jobs. It is taking the place where they used to learn.

On October 12, at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva described AI's impact on the labor market as "a slow-moving tsunami, but [a] tsunami nonetheless." IMF estimates suggest about 40% of jobs worldwide will be affected by AI, around 60% in advanced economies. "People to worry about, first and foremost," she said, "are young people that are coming into the labor market."

Why young people? Because AI is absorbing entry-level and repetitive work first. That work used to be the on-ramp: you did the routine tasks, you watched, you learned, and you moved up.

It's not the first job AI takes. It's the place where beginners used to level up.

I spent all four years of college in AIESEC, and from my senior year I was already working in a science park in Taiwan and in the IT industry. I would not call myself an industry expert, but I did build real practical experience. Years later, when I chose my path as an English teacher, I chose TOEIC. One reason was that the test is built on business contexts, and those concepts were not foreign to me.

Part of that choice was ruling out TOEFL and IELTS. In those worlds I would be competing with people who grew up in English-speaking environments. No amount of effort on my part could close that gap.

The same logic applies now. Don't compete with AI on the routine, repetitive, speed part. Choose the part you built with your own hands in the real world.

To be clear, this is not a claim that young people will have no jobs. The 40% figure covers jobs that may be augmented, downgraded, or replaced, and IMF analysis from 2024 estimated that roughly half of exposed jobs may benefit from AI. Georgieva herself said, "We cannot today imagine what exactly the world of work will be five years from now." Nor is this an argument against school. My point is simpler: experience can no longer wait to be handed to you by an employer. It has to start now.

One thing to try tonight: spend five minutes writing an "experience list." Three things you have done where real people were waiting for the result. Not grades. Then paste it into an AI tool and ask:

"Here are three real things I have done. My role is ___. Sort them into two columns: what AI already does faster than me, and what can only be learned on site, with people. Then ask me one question to help me pick one thing to do this month."

For parents: ask your child, "What is one thing you did recently that someone actually used?"

For educators: give your next assignment a real audience beyond the teacher.

For professionals: this month, volunteer for one hard task nobody wants. If you lead people, turn one routine task into a training exercise for a new hire.

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