Key takeaways
- Ford (F) CEO Jim Farley warned earlier this year that AI could leave many white-collar workers behind and urged a renewed focus on business skills.
- Recent research from Microsoft (MSFT) suggests that blue-collar jobs, such as roofers and tire makers, are among those least likely to be replaced by AI.
- Even though a declining percentage of people say college is “very important,” households with a college degree still earn significantly more than those without.
Over the past year, CEOs and founders have sounded the alarm, warning that AI could lead to job losses and dramatically change the workforce.
Ford CEO Jim Farley is among the leaders warning that white-collar workers should prepare for the potentially transformative impact of AI, arguing that some should consider commercial work.
“I think AI and new technologies have an asymmetric impact on our economy: a lot of things benefit a lot and a lot of things hurt,” Farley said in an interview with Walter Isaacson, a journalist and author, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June 2025. “When we look at these openings in our economy, it’s very clear that the technology we’ve seen has left a lot of people behind. AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”
Isaacson pressed Farley on how the education system should respond to new technology.
“We need to get back to the basics, to trade schools, and we need a society that doesn’t look down on people like that,” Farley said.
Trade schools teach students specific skills that allow them to pursue particular careers, such as welder, plumber, carpenter, cosmetologist, and more. Compared to a traditional four-year college, trade schools are generally more affordable, shorter in duration, and offer a more hands-on experience.
Which jobs are most protected from AI?
Recent research has indicated that the jobs least likely to be replaced by AI in the future are those that involve manual labor.
A Microsoft paper from earlier this year, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that some of the jobs least likely to be affected by AI were roofers, massage therapists, and tire manufacturers.
However, other researchers have found that AI has not been used to replace workers, at least not yet. A Yale Budget Lab study found that since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, there has been no significant disruption to the job market due to the new technology.
The potential for rapid workforce disruption is not unprecedented. Economists have compared current white-collar AI concerns to manufacturing job losses during the wave of globalization of the 1990s and 2000s, a shift that grew the overall U.S. economy but devastated communities of workers whose work moved abroad.
“The shock could be very quick and very deep,” Chen Zhao, chief global strategist at Alpine Macroeconomics, recently warned. “You can have a very large displacement of workers who need to be attended to in some way.”
The rise of AI and other social changes have meant that Farley is not alone in expressing more skepticism about the value of a college degree. A Gallup poll conducted earlier this year found that the percentage of Americans who said college was “very important” fell from 75% in 2010 to just 35% in 2025.
Despite this survey, households with college degrees still tend to significantly outperform those without college degrees. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study this year suggested that the wage premium for those with college degrees over those without has been growing, from about 60% in 2010 to about 68% in 2024.
