The hidden moments of one of the most popular American television programs : Shark Tank

Disappearing Jobs: How Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transform the Job Market in 2026?

The countdown seems to have already begun. Once a mere fear, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a tangible reality that we are rapidly experiencing.

Recent reports from Goldman Sachs warn that AI could replace up to 300 million jobs worldwide, amid radical transformations in the job market.

In 2025 alone, AI eliminated more than 76,440 jobs, confirming that these transformations are not far off, but rather a reality that will accelerate in the coming year.

 Five Jobs AI Will Virtually Dominate by 2026

Law and Compliance

Lawyers used to be paid up to $500 an hour to review contracts, but that reality has changed dramatically.

Legal AI platforms like Harvey and DoNotPay are no longer mere assistants; they take on complex tasks that once required years of study and extensive experience, such as document review, contract analysis, and legal research.

Most astonishingly, a junior lawyer can review 20 contracts per day, while AI can handle 2,000 simultaneously with 99.7% accuracy.

For example, Linklaters, one of the world's largest law firms, uses AI to review commercial contracts in minutes instead of hours, reducing costs from tens of thousands of dollars to a software subscription of just a few hundred dollars.

Thus, the jobs directly affected by this transformation include contract reviewers, legal researchers, compliance officers, document analysts, and legal secretaries.

The irony is that the profession that defines employment law is about to learn what "employment at will" means.

 Accounting and Finance

If your job relies on spreadsheets and financial reports, know that your time is limited. Software like MindBridge and AppZen detects fraud, processes invoices, and generates financial reports quickly and accurately, 24 hours a day.

So, why pay expensive accounting teams when AI can do the job more cheaply?

JPMorgan's COIN software is a concrete example: it processes in seconds what previously took 360,000 hours of work per year, the equivalent of 180 full-time employees.

The most affected jobs in this field are accounts payable and receivable, tax preparation, auditing, budget forecasting, and expense management.

Healthcare Administrators

While doctors and nurses feel secure, healthcare administrators are at risk of losing their jobs due to the increasing use of intelligent automation.

For example, medical coding, insurance claims processing, appointment scheduling, and patient data entry are all tasks that are gradually migrating to AI systems.

In this context, Anthem uses AI to process more than 200 million medical claims annually, significantly reducing costs and speeding up processing times from weeks to minutes.

Jobs to be eliminated include medical billing coders, insurance claims managers, patient registration specialists, medical records technicians, preauthorization coordinators, and data entry operators.

The cruel irony is that while AI improves healthcare efficiency, it also threatens thousands of employees with job losses.

 Customer Support and Call Centers

Customer service employees are the first line of defense against the impact of AI, with chatbots and voice assistants handling approximately 80% of routine inquiries without human intervention.

For example, Bank of America's Erica software handles more than 1 billion customer interactions annually, equivalent to the work of thousands of call center employees.

As a result, jobs such as telephone support agents, live chat operators, technical support specialists, customer service coordinators, help desk technicians, and call center supervisors are at risk of disappearing.

So, the next time you contact customer service, you might find yourself facing a machine with infinite patience and knowledge superior to that of a human.

Routine Content and Data Management

Content creation and data analysis have long been the preserve of humans, but this has changed dramatically with the emergence of AI models such as GPT-4, GPT-5, and Claude.

These technologies now make it possible to write articles, prepare reports, and analyze data at lightning speed and at a much lower cost.

For example, the Associated Press uses AI to write thousands of scores and sports highlights each year, something that previously required a large team of reporters and editors.

Consequently, jobs at risk of disappearing include content writers, data entry specialists, social media managers, market research analysts, administrative assistants, translators, and even entry-level graphic designers.

The Arab and Gulf Labor Markets Face Artificial Intelligence

In the Arab world, the labor market, particularly in the Gulf States, is facing profound transformations due to the spread of AI technologies, which threaten traditional jobs in various sectors such as customer service, education, retail, and travel.

In the Gulf States in particular, the situation is complicated by "nationalization" policies, as thousands of citizens risk losing their jobs due to the replacement of traditional positions with advanced intelligent systems.

For example, despite ongoing efforts to employ citizens in remote call centers, startups like the Saudi company Sawt have emerged, providing AI agents capable of performing these tasks with high efficiency, thus threatening the sustainability of these jobs.

Although the impact is still gradual, reports from the World Economic Forum predict that 92 million jobs in the Gulf region will be replaced by AI by 2030, with new opportunities emerging from massive investments in digital infrastructure.

To address this reality, countries like Saudi Arabia have adopted national initiatives to train their citizens in AI skills, seeking to ensure the integration of the national workforce into a rapidly evolving digital economy.

This transformation poses a real test for localization strategies, which must quickly adapt to accelerating technological change to ensure the sustainability of future job opportunities.

 The Crucial Crossroads: Adapt or Extinct

AI isn't just eliminating jobs; it's completely redefining them. Projections indicate that 800 million jobs worldwide could be altered or eliminated by 2030, while 70% of employees believe that generative AI will change more than a third of their current tasks.

If you work in one of these five fields, you have two choices:

1. Adapt and evolve: Master AI tools and focus on creative and strategic skills that are difficult for machines to imitate, such as emotional intelligence and complex problem-solving.

2. Stay true to your habits: Continue performing routine tasks for which AI has become better, faster, and cheaper, putting you at risk of being replaced.

Ultimately, companies don't act out of malice, but rather according to a logic of efficiency and effectiveness, which has no compassion for the unemployed. Change is inevitable, but it represents a new beginning for those who know how to turn it into profit.