While the enormous market correction prompted by the release of the generative AI tool DeepSeek perhaps added rather than reduced the uncertainty surrounding the possible impact of AI on the labor market by shattering many of the myths that had emerged since the launch of ChatGPT in 2023, what seems certain is that the technology will have some impact.

For the past decade or so there have been countless attempts to estimate the impact of AI and automation on jobs. The WEF added its annual voice to the melee at the start of 2025, estimating that hundreds of millions of jobs will be affected, with new jobs created at a similar lick to those being destroyed. As AI reshapes industries, workers will need to navigate more fluid career paths, where retraining and adaptability become as important as traditional experience.

Getting from A to B

In The Technology Trap Oxford University’s Carl Frey outlines how past industrial revolutions have often been so caustic because of our relatively poor ability to help people whose jobs are affected move into areas that have more promising futures. One of his proposed solutions was to provide mobility vouchers to help people physically move to areas where employment prospects are slightly rosier.

Unfortunately, mobility isn’t really in a great place at the moment. For instance, research from the University of York found that people from poorer backgrounds were less likely to move in order to find new opportunities. The study found that professionals from working-class backgrounds often face limitations in moving to more prosperous areas, which affects their access to high-paying jobs. What’s more, research from the University of Connecticut shows that friends and family are also a strong reason for people to want to stay where they are.

At the Global Labor Market Conference, Frey argued that remote work could play a crucial role in overcoming this gap by allowing jobs to come to people rather than requiring them to go to jobs. He said that as individuals seek ways to navigate these challenges, remote work has emerged as a powerful tool for maintaining employment stability and facilitating career transitions. By offering flexibility, expanding access to job opportunities, and enabling skill development, remote work could help individuals adapt to career disruptions more effectively.

“Remote work breaks down geographical barriers, giving people access to a wider range of opportunities that might have been out of reach in a traditional office setting,” he told me.

Broadening access

A key advantage of remote work is that it allows people to access a global pool of jobs that would allow them to overcome some of the socioeconomic barriers that might have restricted physical mobility.

For instance, professionals who lose their jobs due to local economic downturns or industry shifts can now access a global job market. They are no longer constrained by the economic conditions of their immediate surroundings and can apply for roles in regions with higher demand for their skills. This increased access to opportunities is particularly beneficial for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who may lack the financial resources to move for work.

Making the transition

If that sounds simplistic, it undoubtedly is, and we might justifiably ask how easy it is to transition to new careers even when opportunities avail themselves. After all, it risks the kind of ridicule that followed a UK government promotion suggesting a ballerina could retrain as a coder in 2020.

Research from LSE suggests things might not be as bleak as we fear, however. The researchers examined the way technology affected the employment and career earnings of Swedish workers. They find that the potential losses are relatively modest, with a 2-5 percent decline in earnings and a 1-2 percent decline in employment.

This suggests that there was a reasonable degree of mobility between livelihoods, with people able to offset the decline in their original income by moving into new fields that were less affected by technology.

This perhaps goes some way toward explaining why those in the lowest earning percentiles were most heavily affected by the introduction of technology. Indeed, they typically saw a decline in their career incomes of between 8-11%. While they were even less likely to remain in their original occupation than higher earners, they were also less effective at finding new forms of work, or at least new forms of work that paid a comparable rate.

No silver bullet

This also hints at the uneasy suggestion that remote work is the answer, as obviously many roles cannot be performed remotely. For instance, data from recruitment website Indeed shows that the biggest growth in roles in 2025 is in areas such as healthcare, construction, and education, all of which are heavily tethered to particular regions. They also often face licensing and qualification barriers that prevent easy transition into such roles.

Another considerable elephant in the room is the well-publicized kickback against remote work by employees over the past year, with Amazon, Google, and JPMorgan among a growing number of organizations issuing return-to-office mandates that require workers to be in the office for at least part of the week. This tethers workers to location at least to the extent that they need to be commutable for a few days a week.

Remote work offers a meaningful but incomplete solution to labor market disruptions caused by AI. While it expands access to opportunities and reduces reliance on physical mobility, its limitations, such as its incompatibility with many industries and corporate pushback, suggest that a more multi-faceted approach is needed.

For those where location matters, there is also help at hand. Research suggests that workers who invest in cognitive-abstract skills, such as those developed through apprenticeships, experience sustained wage growth. As AI disrupts routine-manual jobs, similar training programs may be critical in helping workers transition to more resilient careers.

This approach could also assist remote workers, with digital apprenticeships adopting a similar model to help people transition into new careers that can be performed regardless of location. Google’s Digital Apprenticeship is a good example of such an approach

Pleasingly, while the hype surrounding generative AI suggestions disruption will be overnight, the LSE research found that change tends to happen much more gradually. Whatever the approach people take to adapt, therefore, it’s likely that they will have a bit of time to do so.