December 3, 2025
The MIT study revealed that AI would end up replacing almost 12% of the workforce.
A new study has revealed that AI could have a trillion-dollar impact on job wages for U.S. workers.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology just released a new study that has workers even more concerned about their future in the age of AI. Its findings confirmed that AI could replace $2.1 trillion in wages in several major job sectors. According to Afrotech, this would amount to 11.7% of the U.S. workforce.
CNBC reports that the study used the Iceberg Index, a “skills-centered measure of workforce exposure in the AI economy,” to arrive at this figure. Created by MIT and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the index has determined the economic impact of the growing AI emphasis on workforce operations.
While the index could not determine exactly when this technology will yield these lost wages, it did analyze skill sets and work at nearly 1,000 roles. The index then determined which jobs and skill sets AI could already overtake. Particularly, the study found that AI’s capabilities would primarily target entry-level work, leaving the professional futures of college graduates in jeopardy.
“AI systems now generate more than a billion lines of code each day, prompting companies to restructure hiring pipelines and reduce demand for entry-level programmers,” explained the researchers, as reported by CBS News. “These observable changes in technology occupations signal a broader reorganization of work that extends beyond software development.”
The study also determined that several major job markets could face further automation, including healthcare. This would primarily affect administrative duties within its operations, but would allow human workers to focus more on patient care. Another major sector of note is the finance industry. The technology would serve both fields by ridding the need for workers to spend large amounts of the workday on documentation.
While AI would greatly reduce the need for additional workers to handle administrative tasks, the study did not see it fully replacing the substantive, people-facing responsibilities that healthcare workers and financial professionals perform.
[F]inancial analysts will not disappear, but AI systems may demonstrate capability across significant portions of document-processing and routine analysis work,” added the researchers. “This reshapes how roles are structured and which skills remain in demand, without necessarily reducing headcount.”
However, this shift would greatly impact Black and Brown workers, who have already been disproportionately impacted by the inclusion of AI in certain operations. According to the Colaberry School of Data Science & Analytics, Black people have already suffered from AI replacement in the customer service industry, with warnings that the growing economic divide could make the job market worse for Black workers.
Some states have already begun researching strategies for implementing AI in their specific sectors while avoiding the complete elimination of jobs. With a seemingly imminent AI-induced workforce reduction, Black people and other workers of color may remain on the front lines for layoffs.
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