AI Is Pushing Older Workers Out of Jobs Earlier Than Expected, New Research Finds

Key points

• Workers aged 55 and over in AI-exposed industries showed a statistically significant rise in job exits after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, according to a new Boston College study.
• The five jobs with the highest AI exposure include web developers, computer programmers, and data scientists, all of which tend to be higher-paid, white-collar roles.
• 42% of 1,504 workers surveyed by career site Monster in December 2024 said they do not use AI tools at all.
• AARP research found that 49.4% of workers over 50 hold roles that are partly insulated from AI disruption, compared with 42.2% of younger workers.
• Social Security's main trust fund may run out in late 2032, which could push high-income workers to stay employed longer, just as AI threatens their roles.

AI was supposed to be a young person's problem. Older workers, the thinking went, were safely out of reach, either winding down careers in physical jobs or coasting on decades of hard-won expertise.

New research says that picture is wrong.

A paper from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that workers aged 55 and over in jobs with high AI exposure, meaning roles where AI tools can already perform many of the tasks, are leaving work more frequently than before. Some exits are involuntary. Some are workers simply deciding to quit early rather than adapt.

"It's a statistically significant effect," said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, the study's author and an economics professor. "For some occupations, it can be quite large."

The research draws on U.S. labour survey data and AI exposure scores from Tufts University's Digital Planet initiative, a programme that tracks how digital technology reshapes different jobs. The turning point in the data is the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, the chatbot released in November 2022 that made AI tools suddenly very visible to employers.

Before ChatGPT, older workers in AI-exposed roles were actually less likely to leave their jobs. After it launched, that flipped.

What does this mean for people approaching retirement?

It creates a double squeeze for high earners. The jobs most exposed to AI, such as web developer, database architect, and data scientist, are exactly the kind of well-paid, office-based roles that white-collar workers spend decades building towards. Those same workers are also the most likely to face benefit cuts in any future Social Security reform, because Social Security's trust fund is currently projected to run out in late 2032, and one likely fix is trimming payments to higher earners.

In plain terms: the workers who may need to keep working the longest could find their roles disrupted first.

On the other side of the spectrum sit excavating workers, roof bolters, and fiberglass fabricators, jobs that require hands-on physical skills AI cannot easily replicate. These roles have historically come with shorter careers because they are hard on the body. AI may close that gap from the other direction, shortening high-earners' careers instead of lengthening lower-income ones.

The situation is not purely bleak. Sanzenbacher notes that AI could also let some people work longer by handling repetitive tasks and freeing up time for higher-level thinking. CNBC Tech first reported on the study, noting that AARP and LinkedIn research found experienced workers are more likely to hold roles requiring collaboration, judgment, and leadership skills that AI struggles to replace.

For anyone over 50 who has not yet touched an AI tool, career expert Vicki Salemi at Monster suggests a practical starting point: learn the AI tools your employer already pays for. Then make sure your CV and conversations highlight the soft skills, communication, problem-solving, relationship-building, that no chatbot can convincingly fake yet.

Adapting to new tools while doubling down on what makes you human is, by the evidence so far, still a very employable combination.