20 Industries That Are Slowly But Surely “Dying,” According To People Who Have Worked In Them

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20 Industries That Are Slowly But Surely “Dying,” According To People Who Have Worked In Them

We’ve all heard older folks talk about their jobs “way back when” that no longer exist or have been automated. Now, with another wave of technological advances and (unfortunate) political shifts, it seems folks are more concerned about their job security than ever. So when redditor

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asked the

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community to share the

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in the next 10 years, people from many industries gave their two cents. Here are their predictions.

1.”I used to do court transcription (not stenography). Basically, I download an audio file and type what’s spoken in the courtroom verbatim (within style rules). The industry has been trying to implement speech-to-text software for years, but it’s been to crap up until very recently. I’ve since upskilled to an ‘editor’ where instead of typing manually, I correct the generated transcript. It still struggles with speaker differentiation and formatting, but it’s improved so drastically within the last three years that it’s only a matter of time until traditional transcriptionists are no longer necessary.”

Person in a courthouse typing at a computer, with two others in the background

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2.”I would have to say traditional local in-person bank tellers and walk-in banks. I’m already seeing these new types of banks showing up — they look like gas stations without the stores, and the gas pumps are video ATMs. To do your banking, you drive up to the ATM and request what service you want. If that service requires a teller, you’ll be connected to a call center teller (possibly an overseas one or AI). If you need to cash a check or deposit money, you just enter them into the ATM. The downside to these is the massive loss of local teller jobs. You’ll no longer have someone from your community to help you with your banking needs.”

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3.”Really hoping to see real estate agents disappear in the near future.”

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Woman placing a “For *****” sign in front of a house, holding a folder, symbolizing real estate or property management work

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“I think they’re providing a valuable service, but with home prices increasing so much more than inflation in the past few decades, we’ve ended up in a situation where their historic commission rate of 2.5–3% is unjustified.”

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4.”Any sort of translation work.”

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“My wife is a translator, and this is something she is really concerned about. Her projects were cut in half this year compared to 2024.”

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5.”I work as a master control operator, basically one of the people that monitors and edits the playlists that send TV programming to air. We monitor for graphics, closed captioning, audio, and video, and also serve as emergency recovery if the video or audio goes haywire. We also roll the commercial breaks for any live programming like the news or sporting events. We recently started using a new on-air system that has some strange kinks when it comes to live programming and doesn’t seem to be designed for rapid in-the-moment adjustments. When we asked the engineers about it, they said they designed the program with ‘stations that do not have a live operator’ in mind.”

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Control room with a digital audio mixer and multiple video screens displaying a variety of channel feeds, suggesting media production work

“The program also has auto-recovery options. If a spot fails for any reason, the system sees how long the upcoming outage will last and auto-fills it with preapproved promos and graphics.

I have a strong feeling the purpose of this new system is to bug test and design an on-air program that can basically run and recover itself while following a mother station.

You could then have a dozen or more stations all following the lead of one main station, which could eliminate 90% of operators, the only ones remaining being those who monitor those dozen stations at once and do quick fixes for any stations that miss a trigger or have a random glitch.

I don’t think live TV could realistically be fully automated in a decade, but the number of hands needed to do it will get smaller by the day.”

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6.”I don’t think wiped out, but I do think a lot of digital designers are going to be replaced with AI.”

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“My brother was a digital designer for a popular video game. He did this for 20 years. They just let him and a bunch of other designers go. ***** sucks. He’s so damn talented.”

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7.”Customer service and call centers are gonna see a lot of trouble with Agentic AI on the horizon. It’s not good because that industry employs millions of people across the world.”

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Person in an office wearing headphones with microphone, working at a computer, dressed in a business-casual blazer

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“I work in phone customer service. I get thanked for being a person daily.”

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8.”My master’s in data science feels pretty useless right now. It’s a saturated market, and AI is being programmed to code, analyze trends, create other models, and prepare reports. It’s terrifying, but I hope I’m wrong.”

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9.”In the US, locomotive engineers on major freight railroads. Trains basically drive themselves now. All the engineer really does is hit a dead-man switch, blow the *****, and ring the bell. A computer runs the train and even tells the engineer when to apply the air brakes. The big carriers are pushing for one-person crews, and General Electric and the railroad electronics companies are pushing for programs that can run the train from a dead start to a dead stop. Locomotive engineers aren’t even technically called ‘engineers’ anymore; they’re ‘locomotive operators.’ Especially with the recent political regime and new head of the Federal Railroad Administration, this reality is coming ever faster.”

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Train engineer operates controls in locomotive cabin, focusing on tracks ahead, illustrating work in the rail transport industry

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10.”Copywriting.”

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“I work in the industry, and a ton of people are being cut for AI even though it sounds like ***** half the time, but it’s just good enough that a lot of companies don’t care. Even a lot of the remaining jobs want you to use AI in tandem so that you can pump out more volume faster.”

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11.”Paralegals. It’s scary, but the legal world is embracing AI. Everyone heard about those lawyers who used ChatGPT, and it cited case law that didn’t exist, but no one’s talking about how LexisNexis developed their own AI, which won’t do that. If an AI can summarize case law, write a brief, and generate court documents, what does the paralegal do? The only saving grace is that plenty of old lawyers out there don’t even know how to e-file documents, so that may delay it a bit.”

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A professional woman in an office holds a tablet, seated at a desk with legal books, a gavel, and scales of justice, indicating a legal profession

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12.”By the looks of it, being a federal employee.”

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“Them and us who rely on federal funding for our jobs. I’m a research administrator at a university, and let’s just say that things aren’t looking too hot right now.”

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13.”My friend is an artist. She made a living off commissions on

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. That site is going to *****, and the rise of AI has already caused her to lose 80–90% of the commissions she was getting a few years ago. She’s currently working a minimum wage job to keep what she can in her account while she figures out what to do.”

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A person in an art studio painting on a canvas; they are wearing a denim shirt and an apron, focusing intently on their work

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“This is one of the saddest parts of AI — we thought it would take over mundane tasks so we could pursue things like the arts, yet here we are, doing mundane things while the arts are being taken over by AI. Even our community alert pages on

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are now adding AI-generated images with every post. It’s annoying as *****.”

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14.”What about drive-thrus? Some places like Taco Bell are already doing it.”

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“Fast food seems to be getting rid of cashiers and trying to move everyone to apps or kiosks. Secondarily, they seem to be getting rid of dine-in service in favor of drive-thru or pickup. McDonald’s is phasing out self-serve beverages, for example. Starbucks is opening new stores without seating areas. Much lower costs that way.”

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15.”My hope is that car salespeople go extinct. The dealership model is antiquated and unnecessary. There’s no good reason why one can’t buy a car completely electronically. Choose a car. Add options. Add to basket. Select financing. Complete purchase.”

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A businessperson in a suit shows a young woman in casual clothes a tablet, standing near a car in a showroom, suggesting a vehicle purchase

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“They’re fighting it tooth and nail, but I see them being wiped out or totally minimized within 20 years. Pretty much everyone born after 1980 or so is too used to buying online and doesn’t want to deal with haggling or being pressured by a middleman who is making a commission.”

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16.”Newspaper print employees.”

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“I simply do not understand how so many local papers are still in print. I don’t know a single person who still subscribes to a newspaper delivery. “

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17.”Teaching. We’re leaving en masse due to low pay and terrible conditions, and it’s only getting worse.”

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A teacher in a classroom engages with students raising their hands, standing in front of a whiteboard with notes on bean experiments

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“I live in the South, and it’s way worse than people know. We have a teacher on

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who regularly posts things that are clearly not true, like 20 million dead from famine in the US during the Great Depression. The good teachers are fleeing and leaving the state.”

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18.”I do digital marketing for small local businesses. We do their social media, websites,

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ads, newsletters, blogs, etc. With the way AI is advancing, I really worry that people won’t need someone to market for them anymore. That’s still way down the line, but I’m in my 20s. What is this industry going to look like when I’m 50? It’s already really hard to find a job.”

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“This. I got a marketing degree in 2015 and was laid off twice in five years. I went back to school and got my nursing license after that.”

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19.”Bridal and formal wear stores/stylists. We’re already seeing stores close now at rapid rates. People buy their wedding dresses and prom/homecoming dresses from SHEIN,

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, and other cheaper online retailers. Brides still try to book appointments and tell us, ‘Oh, I have a dress; I just didn’t get the Say Yes to the Dress experience, so I want to come in and try stuff on.’ We can’t compete with a $50 dress, and brides care less and less about quality because ‘I’m only wearing it for a few hours.’ Some bridal shop owners think they can band together and write to their congressional leaders and senators to stop people from buying online, but they really can’t.”

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Person in a suit holding a blue book, standing in a bridal boutique surrounded by mannequins wearing wedding dresses

“There’s really no way to take back the industry. We are in the age of fast fashion and cheap prices. Gone are the days of spending $1,500 on a wedding dress, shopping with your mom, and waiting six to nine months for it to come in.

It’s not about educating them and teaching them about quality. It’s a different generation; we either get with the times or get out.”

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20.”Journalist. I covered the NBA for over a decade, but from 2019 until now — the last five years — I’ve been laid off seven times as companies shift to AI-authored stories. I’ve been offered AI editing roles for half my typical pay, which is unsustainable. I know other writers from other fields probably feel the same squeeze as I am.”

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What jobs do you believe will vanish in the next decade? Give us your predictions in the comments or fill out

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Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.

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#Industries #Slowly #Surely #Dying #People #Worked

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