These 25 American Jobs Will Be Replaced By Robots In The Future

Avg. Annual Salary: $31,200*
Expected Replacement By: 2024

Working in the fast-food industry has long been a right of passage for young people who are new to the world of employment, however, in recent years, many of the positions that they used to fill have been replaced by machines. Some fast-food chains have even started flirting with the idea of flipping from human grill chefs to robotic ones. 

Fast Food Cook ©Dan Kosmayer / Shutterstock.com

Due to the advances in technology, and the assembly-line nature of the fast-food industry, it’s estimated that by the end of 2024 more than 80,000 fast food jobs will have been eliminated. White Castle, recently, became the first in its industry to experiment with a robotic grill chef. It does the same job, only more efficiently, and it won’t sneeze on anyone’s food.

Avg. Annual Salary: $61,843*
Expected Replacement By: 2031

Self-driving taxis and cars have been spoken about for a few years now, however, what many people don’t know is that it’s been estimated that within the next decade 50% of America’s trucking jobs could be handed over to trucks that run on self-driving systems as well. 

Truck Drivers ©Luca Santilli / Shutterstock.com

Acquired by Uber in August 2020, Otto is a self-driving truck company that, in October of 2020, successfully tested its prototype. Otto is able to drive for long periods of time without the use of a person behind the wheel. Much like other self-driving cars, the trucks are monitored for safety purposes while being operated by the A.I.

Avg. Annual Salary: $29,500*
Expected Replacement By: Unknown

No matter where one works as a security guard there is always a chance that one could find themselves in a less than desirable situation. Needless to say, working as a security guard has always been a high-risk/low-reward job, but it’s a job that someone has to do…until now.

Security Guards ©Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com

Security robots like Knightscope’s K5 cost less than what it would cost to pay their human counterpart to do the safe job. Another benefit of a robotic security guard is that, in the case of an emergency, there is no risk to a human guard’s life. If any further proof is needed, look no further than one of the 10 states that already have the K5 patrolling their offices and parking lots.

Avg. Annual Salary: $55,045*
Expected Replacement By: Unknown

Accounting has long had a reputation of being a boring profession. All day, every day, accountants sit at their desks crunching numbers and dealing with other people’s finances, and then, when tax season comes around, they spend all night there as well. Recently, like many other monotonous occupations, accounting has also begun to become automated.

Accountants ©Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.com

As of now, the tax bots that companies like H&R Block and TurboTax use are unable to file claims with the IRS, so, for now, these bots will only be able to help cut the amount of number-crunching that an accountant will have to do. Tax bots also lack the creativity to find the loopholes in a tax return that a seasoned CPA would have no problem finding.

Avg. Annual Salary: $248,104*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

Surgeons spend most of their 20s and an unfathomable amount of money perfecting their craft. When it comes to it, if they don’t, and they make one mistake, a patient could lose their life. The uncontrollable variable of human error had, for many years, been unfixable, however, thanks to modern science, there is now a way to remove that variable.

Surgeons ©sheff / Shutterstock.com

The use of robot surgeons has already begun in many countries around the world. Not only does the artificial doctor provide more precise and successful procedures but, as a result of removing the human factor, the risk of infection is, theoretically, significantly reduced as well. 

Avg. Annual Salary: $37,850*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time before automated messages waited on the other side of most phone calls. There was a time when there was be a kind and helpful person who would not direct their callers to seven different automated menus. 

Receptionists ©Jacob Lund / Shutterstock.com

It’s almost at the point where an entire generation of people will have no idea what it was like to call a business and have a real human person answer the phone. As a result, with a 96% chance of becoming an automated job, receptionists – who were once the heart and soul of an office – are soon to be an occupation of the past.

Avg. Annual Salary: $31,403*
Expected Replacement By: Unknown

Anyone who has lived in a big city knows what it’s like to not only see but also hear taxis everywhere. Imagine for a moment that the loud and sporadic drivers, and their ever-honking horns, that make the roads seem exponentially more terrifying, were to be replaced by fully autonomous driverless cabs.

Taxi Drivers ©Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com

Taxi drivers were already beginning to take a hefty hit to their monthly profits, thanks to ride-sharing programs like Uber. But now, it seems as though the job of a taxi driver might only last as long as it takes to finish the development of road-safe A.I. taxis.

Avg. Annual Salary: $44,848*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

Bookkeeping is a profession that has been around for as long as there have been papers and files that have needed organizing, however, due to the increased use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning (M.L.) bookkeeping, as it had been known for decades, has gone the way of the dinosaurs. 

Bookkeepers ©Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com

Microsoft Office, Freshbooks, and Quickbooks are just a few of the many softwares that are available, and considering their affordability and easy-to-use programs, it’s becoming increasingly evident that it’s only a matter of time before bookkeepers become extinct.

Avg. Annual Salary: $28,052*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

Telemarketing is one of the many occupations that can be done by someone who has received little to no education. In fact, for the most part, all a telemarketer needs to do is read a scripted pitch from a piece of paper. To perform the job these days, all companies need is a recorded message and an up-to-date auto dealing system. 

Telemarketers ©Bojan Milinkov / Shutterstock.com

An Oxford study has shown that, in the near future, telemarketing has a 99% probability of becoming fully automated. The next time someone interrupts dinner to try and sell duct cleaning services, remember, it could be the last time there’s a human voice on the other side of that call.

Avg. Annual Salary: $44,676*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

Not long ago, few people would have thought it possible that a restaurant’s chef could be replaced by a machine. However, the personal touch that each chef has is the exact thing that has caused some restaurants to re-think their strategy. With A.I. preparing and cooking the meals, each dish will always taste the same.

Chefs ©wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com

A handful of restaurants around the world have already begun the process of employing robot chefs. Some have done so as a gimmick to bring in customers, but others have done so in order to improve efficiency while cutting back on the possibility of human error. Some places are even considering swapping out chefs for 3D-Food printers.

Avg. Annual Salary: $38,883*
Expected Replacement By: Unknown

It’s been more than 3-decades since the United States Postal Service began replacing human employees with technology. It started with the forklift drivers then, a few years later, the mail sorters. The one constant through all of this were the carriers, through rain or snow they were delivering the mail. But with the constant downtrend in U.S.P.S.’ annual income something’s got to change.

Postal Service ©Workers Peter Titmuss/Shutterstock.com

Although there aren’t many options for A.I. postal service workers, a robotic delivery system, designed and developed by Starship Technologies, was successfully tested by Swiss Post in 2016. When it will be rolled out stateside is still to be determined.

Avg. Annual Salary: $23,000*
Expected Replacement By: Unknown

A restaurant’s dishwasher usually spends the majority of their shift either dripping in water or covered in food. They get the least amount of recognition for doing one of the hardest jobs, and they do it all for minimum wage. Dishcraft, a Silicon Valley start-up company, might have found a way of keeping this grueling job out of human hands.  

Dishwashers ©U2M Brand / Shutterstock.com

The Dishcraft robotic dishwashing system holds dishes in places using magnets while scrubbing them clean. The system is able to handle large loads of dishes at one time while expertly cleaning each one, however, thus far the research has shown that, when high-traffic restaurants are “under the pump”, people are still more efficient. 

Avg. Annual Salary: $35,229*
Expected Replacement By: In Progress

Working in customer service usually entails following a series of directives, that have been outlined in an employee handbook, in order to handle customer inquiries. In recent years, thanks to Chatbots that are programmed to answer the most frequently asked questions that customers might ask, hiring someone to personally listen to customer complaints seems, almost, cruel.

Customer Service Representatives ©wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com

Test runs, of the use of artificial intelligent helpers, by two large U.S. businesses, Lowe’s and Target, have already begun to show promise by cutting down on the amount of time that customers are having to wait for assistance.

Avg. Annual Salary: $40,997*
Expected Replacement By: Late 2020s

For decades people have been writing about driverless modes of transportation, and now, thanks to innovators of the tech industry, like Apple and Tesla, autonomous vehicles are less than a decade away, and those “works of fiction” are closer than ever to becoming a reality. 

Bus Drivers ©Vendaval / Shutterstock.com

Similar to taxi drivers, the days of the friendly neighborhood bus driver might be limited to how long it takes to get self-driving autonomous vehicles up to par. After which, it’s estimated that approximately 5 million Americans who are employed in driving-related jobs will be out of work.