The Vanishing Act: 15 Careers That Could Disappear in the Next Decade Due to AI and Automation

Choosing a sustainable career is a key element of maintaining financial fitness. However, for better or worse, it's impossible to predict all the ups and downs of the global economy, and your once-promising career field might start to dry up before you reach retirement age.

Wonder if your current job could end up on the chopping block in the next ten years? Keep reading for our list of careers that seem primed to disappear sooner rather than later.

1. Mail Clerks

Jobs that lend themselves easily to automation are among the most likely to disappear over the next decade. For instance, mail clerks work behind the scenes in mail rooms where they time-stamp, sort, and route mail, all tasks that can increasingly be done by machines.

2. Administrative Assistants and Secretaries

A 2025 report from the World Economic Forum states that clerical jobs, including secretarial positions, are likely to decline sharply over the next 10 years. Tasks like scheduling travel, calculating budgets with spreadsheet software, and sending emails are becoming easier than ever to automate with the introduction and ongoing development of AI, which could render secretaries obsolete.

3. Typists

Thanks to voice-to-text transcription and automated, generative-AI-boosted formatting and phrasing, typists are already much less in demand than they were a few decades ago. This job title is at serious risk of becoming fully extinct in the next decade.

4. Cashiers

As Amazon Fresh customers can confirm, cashiers are no longer essential to a grocery store's daily operations. Technologies like Amazon's Dash Carts, which calculate costs as shoppers take items off shelves and place them in their carts, are currently available in some Amazon Fresh stores.

Fast-expanding technology and the ever-growing number of self-checkouts at retail stores suggest human cashiers could disappear entirely in the next decade.

5. Bank Tellers

Banking jobs have already dropped off with the rise of online banking. ATMs have made it easy to get cash without driving to your bank, and since checks can be deposited via mobile app, there aren't many reasons to go through a bank drive-through and get help from a teller.

6. Transportation Attendants

How long has it been since an attendant asked to check your ticket after you got on a train? Digital scanners, cameras, and other technologies are likely to replace this job with software and surveillance systems in the near future. Though the same can't be said for flight attendants, whose jobs are predicted to keep growing at an above-average rate.

7. Proofreaders

While editing and content strategizing jobs are likely to stick around, proofreading is likely to go the same way as other time-consuming and repetitive jobs that can be done with optimal accuracy by artificial technology tools like EditGPT and Grammarly.

8. Door-to-Door Sellers

Younger generations are less likely than their older counterparts to answer a knock on the door, especially from someone they don't immediately recognize. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects jobs in door-to-door sales to decline by at least 10% in the next decade, though the World Economic Forum predicts an even steeper global decline in these jobs.

9. Accounting and Payroll Clerks

Historically, accounting and payroll clerks have entered data by hand and rigorously reviewed spreadsheets to spot errors. However, advanced accounting software is getting better at sorting and proofreading data with minimal supervision or input from a human. While accountants will likely be around ten years from now, data-entry positions in the field likely won't.

10. Telemarketers

Sales jobs generally are expected to decline between now and 2036, and telemarketing is at the top of the list. Plus, most major phone carriers screen for spam calls, flagging numbers associated with telemarketers so individuals on the other end of the line can choose to decline the call. The calls that do get through can just as easily be automated as made by a real human.

11. Data-Entry Clerks

Any job that requires humans to rapidly input data sets and proofread for errors is likely to dry up in the next decade, which means data-entry clerks in all sorts of professions will probably be phased out as generative AI capabilities improve.

12. Travel Agents

Travel agents help their clients book hotels, find plane tickets, and sign up for tours, all tasks that many people are comfortable performing on their own. Generative AI modules can now answer questions that would-be travelers would typically pose to a travel agent, meaning agents are likely to find less and less work in this sphere.

13. Printers

While print material isn't going to vanish, mass-produced products like printed brochures, manuals, and even restaurant menus are becoming less common, leaving fewer jobs for professional printers.

14. Material Recording Clerks

Inventory management software with built-in generative-AI features is likely to replace in-person stock-keeping clerks. Product tracking is relatively easy to automate, and it will only get easier as technology continues to advance.

15. Insurance Claims Adjusters

Insurance adjusters look into insurance claims and determine if a policyholder qualifies for assistance or settlement, a task that is increasingly being turned over to algorithms and generative AI.

If you're an employee in one of the career fields we mentioned above, don't panic just yet. If the 2020 pandemic taught us anything, it's that no one can say for sure what's around the corner.

Instead of pivoting to a new career out of fear, be strategic and measured as you chart your financial future. Consider picking up a part-time job to make extra money on the side, plotting a careful budget, and researching new careers so you can make thoughtful decisions moving forward.