AI Isn’t Coming for Your Job, It’s Coming for Your Tasks

August 21, 2025

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5 min read

AI Isn’t Coming for Your Job, It’s Coming for Your Tasks

Yes, it’s another article about AI.

Yes, AI is becoming part of every aspect of your work (and maybe personal) life.

No, everyone isn’t going to be unemployed in 12 months.

That’s not to say that your job may change however, and in some cases, it may change drastically as you shed yourself of the boring, repetitive jobs you dread each day. Maybe you can finally get to those super important jobs you’ve been putting off since before the pandemic.

A new MIT study ranked the jobs most exposed to generative AI, and unsurprisingly, budget analysts, tax preparers, and data entry clerks all feature at the top-end. At the bottom? Roofers, mechanics, and short-order cooks. All makes sense so far.

That’s not to say these jobs will vanish overnight, but many of them are changing in ways we haven’t fully grasped, and these changes are happening fast.
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Maybe one day this will change, but at least for now, “AI isn’t coming for your job. It’s coming for the tasks that are predictable, repeatable, and process-driven…”
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What This Really Means for Knowledge Work

The AI conversation has been dominated by hype and fear. But beneath that, something much more interesting is happening:

Most roles won’t disappear. But the shape of those roles will change, especially in business functions built on data: finance, planning, operations, reporting, marketing analytics and customer service.

Tasks that once took hours, compiling reports, reconciling figures, drafting summaries, are now being automated in seconds by AI-powered tools.

So the question isn’t “Will AI replace me?”

It’s: “When AI handles the task… what’s left for me to do?”
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Cognitive Work Is the New Frontier for Automation

Unlike past waves of automation, which displaced physical labour, this one targets cognitive labour, particularly the ‘spreadsheet-heavy’ parts.

That includes:

Budgeting cycles
Variance analysis
Forecast reconciliations
Recurring performance reports
Basic data cleaning and lookup tasks

It’s already happening in tools many teams use today.
You’re already seeing this in action:

Finance teams using ChatGPT and CoPilot to generate monthly reports
Customer service platforms using GenAI to summarise support cases and suggest responses
Ops teams using tools like Notion AI to automate documentation and SOPs
And at Configur, users ask ABI natural language questions, like ‘What region performed best this quarter?’, and get clear, contextual answers instantly.”

The Opportunity Hidden in the Threat

Some people think this all sounds bleak, job losses, displacement, the rise of machines at the expense of human work.

And the truth is: there will be disruption.

According to the World Economic Forum, AI and automation are expected to have displaced 85 million jobs globally by 2025. But they’re also forecast to create 97 million new roles, roles that are more adaptive, analytical, and collaborative.

Similarly, the OECD notes that nearly one in four jobs across member countries could be significantly affected by AI, especially those involving routine, cognitive tasks. While the report was published in mid-2023, it reflects a snapshot of AI capabilities and labour structures at that point in time, with the intention of informing future policy and workforce planning across OECD countries.

It’s clear that this shift won’t be painless. It won’t be equal.

Industries that rely heavily on repeatable, process-driven work, from finance to logistics to admin, will feel the impact first. Entire categories of work are being reshaped. Some roles will be reduced. Others will evolve. And yes, some will disappear altogether.

The economic impact won’t be evenly distributed, by industry, by geography, or by job type.

But this isn’t just a story about what we’ll lose.
It’s also a story about what we might gain, if we respond with intention.

The challenge is not whether change is coming, but how we prepare for it.
Because behind the disruption, there’s opportunity.

Microsoft’s recent research reinforces this uneven impact. A 2024 study analysing Bing Copilot interactions found that AI’s productivity gains vary dramatically across functions. Roles in cybersecurity, product development, and sales reported meaningful daily time savings. In contrast, functions like procurement, legal, and supply chain experienced less benefit. This tells us that AI’s impact isn’t uniform, and success depends heavily on how well it’s integrated into a team’s actual workflows.

Alongside automation, we’re seeing the emergence of new kinds of roles:

AI trainers, prompt engineers, and model supervisors
Insight translators who help humans understand what AI reveals
Strategic thinkers who frame better questions, faster
Cross-functional collaborators who guide AI with human context and ethical oversight

A demand is surging for problem-solvers, people who can think critically, communicate clearly, and ask better questions.

AI can provide answers, but humans still need to frame the right problems.

In that sense, this shift gives us an opportunity to reclaim our most human skills: curiosity, judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking. This is less about replacing people, and more about reshaping work around what people do best: Judgment. Communication. Creativity. Contextual thinking. Strategic action.

The challenge for businesses, and the economy, isn’t just how to adopt AI. It’s how to retrain, reorient, and reimagine the workforce around it.

Microsoft’s findings also highlight an urgent need for reskilling. Just because a role is highly exposed to AI doesn’t mean it’s obsolete, but it does mean the tasks within it are changing. Without timely investment in training and role evolution, there’s a real risk of leaving people behind. The organisations that thrive will be those that treat AI as a partner and reskilling as a strategic priority.

The organisations that thrive in this new economy won’t just deploy AI.
They’ll elevate their people to work alongside it, confidently, competently, and with clarity.

That’s where leadership matters.
That’s where education and enablement matter.

That’s why tools like Configur matter, not because they automate insight, but because they make it accessible. We help businesses upskill their teams, reduce dependency on technical gatekeepers, and give everyone a seat at the decision-making table.
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What Leaders Need to Rethink

This shift requires more than just new tools. It requires new thinking:

Who owns AI in your business?
If the answer is ‘only the data team, that might be too narrow.
Are your teams empowered to use it, or waiting for permission?
The most successful organisations aren’t just deploying AI. They’re enabling everyone to work with it.
Do you have the data foundations to make AI work in the first place?
Because without clean, connected data, even the smartest model will underdeliver.
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The Role of Platforms Like Configur

At Configur, we see this shift playing out every day.

Our clients aren’t just looking for AI tools, they’re trying to answer urgent questions faster, with more confidence, and less reliance on BI bottlenecks.

That’s why we built Abi, our conversational AI assistant, to help non-technical users engage directly with data, without dashboards or code.

But the tech is just the enabler. The real transformation happens when:

Data teams stop being gatekeepers and become enablers.
Business users feel confident asking better questions.
And AI becomes a thinking partner, not just a tool.
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Final Thought

This isn’t about defending your job from AI. It’s about evolving with it. The most valuable professionals in this next era will be the ones who know how to work with AI, not against it. And the businesses that thrive will be the ones that understand: Data-driven doesn’t mean more dashboards. It means faster, smarter decisions, made by humans, powered by AI.
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