Safee-Naaz Siddiqi, AI automation expert at commercial law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, writes that with 170-million jobs projected to be created by AI by 2030, the question should not be “What if I fail?”, but rather, “What if I fly?”

People fear a future where their jobs will be performed by AI. We’re standing at the precipice of what feels like a great technological culling and a future in which we may have no place. It might be predictable behaviour to most algorithms, but it is heartbreakingly human to wonder “What if I fall?”

The statistics aren’t immediately reassuring. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report (2025), 92-million jobs are projected to be displaced globally by 2030 due to “structural labour-market transformation”. 41% of employers plan to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks. Swedish company Klarna is one of many case studies. In 2024, it announced that its OpenAI-powered AI assistant was "doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents", handling 2.3-million customer service conversations within its first month of going live. You might have heard this before but now, more than ever, we must remember what it means to be human. We are the descendants of people who tamed oceans and crossed deserts without knowing what was on the other side or how they’d get there. Surrender is simply not in our DNA. Courage, resilience, and resourcefulness are.

It is hard to imagine, however, that our species would have survived if it wasn’t for our ancestors unwavering commitment to their own individual survival. Early humans didn’t brave the elements because they were adventurous. Survival simply depended on doing everything in their power to find food and shelter. In the 21st century, survival may no longer require us to cross the earth, but it does require us to have money. For most people, that means having a job.

When the World Economic Forum tells us 92-million jobs may be displaced by 2030 as a result of AI, what they mean is that 92-million human beings may lose their means to survival. The threat is existential. Fear is natural and, therefore, many of us are afraid. But, like our ancestors, we’re capable of surviving the threat. And, just like our ancestors, we’ll rely on courage, resilience, and resourcefulness to do it.

When I first joined the legal profession in 2013, I was a first-year candidate attorney. Over the next decade, I built my career as a specialist in Dispute Resolution. I had no understanding, let alone expectations, of GenAI when I opened up ChatGPT in December 2022. But, after a few iterations of prompts, I had an epiphany which was neither unique nor novel: I was going to figure out how to use AI for legal work. 

The next step was immediately clear. As the head of litigation at a smaller firm, responsible for overseeing a team of nine people, I banned them from using AI until I figured out how it could be used safely. By mid-June, I’d crafted a rudimentary set of rules and delivered my first training session on how AI could be used for legal work. 

About a year after that, I moved away from law practice and started LawCoach, a business focused on empowering lawyers to integrate AI into practice. It felt wildly courageous, and there were times when the lawyer I was coaching needed help setting up a ChatGPT account. Claude didn’t exist. I was a full-time entrepreneur – for about two weeks. Then, CDH called. They had an opening on their Knowledge Management team, and they needed help with automation. Only 2 years on, it seems from the outside, when people attend one of my training sessions or read, that I’ve always been in this role.  

Alongside the projected destruction of 92-million jobs, the WEF also projects that 170-million jobs will be created. A year after Klarna deployed its AI-assistant, its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski publicly acknowledged that the company had gone "too far" with AI in customer service. They’d seen a reduction in quality that no reduction in costs could justify and, so, Klarna announced it was re-hiring human agents. Then, there’s me. AI didn’t take my job away, it gave me one that is more exciting, more fulfilling, and more freeing than I could have ever hoped for – a job that didn’t even exist the day I crafted my first prompt. So, if you ever find yourself asking “What if I fall?” – I want you to think of Erin Hanson (and maybe me) because “Oh, my darling, what if you fly?”. 

Written by Safee-Naaz Siddiqi, Professional Support Lawyer, Knowledge Management and Competition Law, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr