Deutsche Bank asked AI how it planned to destroy jobs. And the robot answered

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Deutsche Bank asked AI how it planned to destroy jobs. And the robot answered

In a meta-experiment on the future of the global economy, the Deutsche Bank Research Institute turned to the machine itself for answers. Instead of relying solely on traditional economic modeling, the analysts asked their proprietary AI tool, dbLumina, to identify which industries they wanted to outperform. The resulting report offers a clear vision of the “great rebalancing” where algorithms are expected to displace human labor.

The experiment, detailed in a report titled “AI Eating Itself and the World,” used Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model to generate in-depth analysis of global regions. The findings suggest that data-rich industries with repetitive tasks stand at an edge, while those that require human empathy or manual dexterity in unpredictable environments remain safe — for now.

(and fate intelligence, wings of fate A newsroom using generative AI as a research tool conducted a meta-meta-experiment to expedite the publication of this news article about it.)

Perhaps the most ironic conclusion for Silicon Valley is that the sector facing the most disruption may be the one building the disruptors: information technology and software. AI found the field to be particularly sensitive because software development is built on logic and patterns – many of the properties AI systems are designed to automate.

The report notes that more than 85% of developers are already using AI coding assistants, with productivity gains of up to 60%. That efficiency gain may help corporations, but it also raises concerns about the long-term sustainability of traditional software licensing models. The recent $2 trillion selloff in software stocks in two weeks, dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse,” underscores investor concerns and the evaporation of entry-level coding roles.

Apart from technology, AI has set its sights on the financial sector. It identified wealth management as a primary target, predicting an even greater shift towards “robo-advisors”. AI-powered tools could be the primary source of advice for nearly 80% of retail investors by 2027, fundamentally challenging the role of human financial advisors, the report said.

Customer service faces more rapid change. AI predicts that it will handle up to 75% of all customer service interactions by 2026, leaving human agents to handle only the most complex or sensitive cases. Media and entertainment were also flagged as “likely to be disrupted”, as generative AI moves from analyzing content to producing it, actively competing with human creatives. (Media theorist Doug Shapiro said fate In January it was the sector’s version of the famous “infinite monkey theorem”, in which each media company competes against a proverbial infinite number of monkeys.)

However, the robot was modest about its limitations. The report outlines “areas of resilience” where human characteristics remain a premium currency. Jobs that require “deep empathy,” such as nursing, therapy, and early childhood education, were insulated from the reach of algorithms, making AI aware of its dire implications for its own future.

Additionally, AI admits that it struggles with the physical world. Skilled trades such as plumbing, carpentry, and construction—which require manual dexterity in a messy, unpredictable environment—were considered the least digitized and least vulnerable sectors. Even high-level strategic leadership remains a “human only” field, as AI lacks the intuition needed for complex corporate negotiations.

Human analysts at Deutsche Bank, Jim Reid and Adrian Cox, noted that AI’s self-assessment was a “faithful reflection of the current consensus”. However, they cautioned, the machine likely underestimated the physical obstacles to its own takeover, such as the huge energy requirements for data centers and data quality governance.

Ultimately, AI sees its rise as a transformation rather than an apocalypse. While it predicts 92 million jobs will be displaced by 2030, it also predicts the creation of 170 million new roles, resulting in a net gain for the global workforce. “However, this transition will be disruptive,” Reed and Cox wrote, with estimates that up to 30% of activities currently worked in the U.S. could be automated by 2030, “requiring as many as 12 million occupational transitions.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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