I was forced to use AI until the day I was laid off

🎯 Impact Sentiment: Concerning

📋 Summary

• Copywriting and related jobs have seen dramatic losses and wage cuts, with many roles replaced or heavily degraded by AI-generated content, leaving seasoned professionals and freelancers scrambling for alternative work.
• Workers consistently report that companies favor “good enough” and cheap AI output over quality, resulting in gutted departments, career pivots, and financial hardship, with some driven to entirely unrelated fields or unemployment.
• Even those who tried to adapt—by training AI, editing AI drafts, or “becoming operators”—find the work less fulfilling and less financially viable, with a steep decline in available opportunities and professional identity.
• There is widespread pessimism about the future of entry-level and mid-tier creative careers, as AI adoption in business and marketing is still accelerating, leaving only a niche for top-tier human work and everyone else facing instability and loss.

💡 JR Insights

• 💼 Implication: The erosion of creative job opportunities by AI is outpacing any new roles it creates, especially in copywriting, editing, and related marketing functions. Workers are being displaced faster than they can reskill or reposition, making career transitions feel forced, not chosen.
• 🚨 Risk: The normalization of AI-driven content means not just job loss but also a loss of entry-level roles, making it nearly impossible for newcomers to grow into senior creative positions. This collapse of career ladders worsens financial insecurity and devalues professional expertise across the sector.
• ✨ Takeaway: If you’re in a creative field, it’s time to get radically strategic—either specialize in what AI still can’t do, develop consulting or strategy skills, or be ready to pivot fast. Hoping for the “AI bubble” to burst won’t pay the bills; building resilience and new skill sets might.