On September 30, the McKinsey Global Institute released a report called “Workforce in Motion” with a headline that’s hard to ignore: about 11 million U.S. workers, roughly 7% of today’s workforce, may need to move into a different occupation by 2035 as AI and automation change how work gets done. McKinsey describes it as a shift larger than any in U.S. history.
If that makes you uneasy, you’re not alone. But it helps to look at what’s happening today, not just the 2035 projection.
What the data says right now
- AI is changing jobs faster than it’s eliminating them. In August, employers cited AI in 3,462 announced job cuts, about 6.5% of the month’s total, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas summarized by ODSC. That’s real, but it isn’t the whole story.
- Employers are hiring for AI skills. CompTIA’s State of the Tech Workforce 2026 counted more than 275,000 job postings calling for AI-related skills, and projects U.S. tech employment to grow 1.9% this year.
- Human skills still top the list. In Bullhorn’s August 2026 hiring outlook, employers most often asked for analytical thinking and leadership.
The pattern: most roles are changing task by task. The people who adapt early tend to come out ahead.
Six ways to future-proof your career
- Audit your own job. Write down the tasks you do in a typical week. Which ones are repetitive, rules-based, or mostly about moving information around? Those are the tasks AI is most likely to absorb. The tasks that involve judgment, relationships, troubleshooting, and accountability are the ones to grow into.
- Build AI fluency inside the job you already have. You don’t need to become a machine learning engineer. Pick one tool relevant to your field and use it on real work: drafting documentation, analyzing data, writing test cases, summarizing research. Keep notes on what it saved you. That becomes a story you can tell in an interview.
- Double down on the skills AI can’t replicate. Communication, leadership, problem-solving under pressure, and the ability to explain technical work to non-technical people are getting more valuable, not less. Volunteer to lead a project, mentor a new hire, or present to stakeholders.
- Turn new skills into proof. Employers want evidence, not adjectives. Add measurable outcomes to your resume, earn a certification that matters in your field, or build a small portfolio project. Our post on AI skills to add to your resume includes specific ways to phrase them.
- Use contract work as a bridge. Contract and contract-to-hire roles are one of the fastest ways to get hands-on experience with new tools and industries. According to the American Staffing Association, 64% of staffing employees say they took that path to bridge gaps between jobs or land one. For many people, a contract is how a career pivot actually happens.
- Get an honest read on the market. A good recruiter sees what hiring managers ask for every day and can tell you which skills are opening doors and which are fading. That perspective is hard to get from job postings alone.
If it all feels like a lot
A career change, even a planned one, is tiring. If the search has started to wear on you, read our post on job seeker burnout for ways to keep going without running on empty. And remember that a 2035 projection is a range of possibilities, not a sentence. You have time to get ahead of it.
Ready to see where your skills fit today? Browse open roles or become an SSi Person and let our recruiters help you plan your next move.