Anthropic will pay you $320,000 per year to help build its AI tools — and it’s a great example of how the ‘AI killing jobs’ narrative is overblown
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AI Isn't Just Killing Jobs—It's Creating High-Paying Ones
Artificial intelligence isn't merely replacing jobs—it's spawning new ones, often with six-figure salaries. Anthropic PBC, maker of the Claude AI tools, recently posted openings for experienced software engineers paying up to $320,000 annually to build and refine its systems. This counters the "AI is killing jobs" narrative, highlighting fresh opportunities in a transforming market.
Research from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Wilbur Xinyuan Chen, alongside Harvard Business School's Suraj Srinivasan and Saleh Zakerinia, shows jobs evolving rather than vanishing. Routine tasks face automation risks, but demand surges for analytical, technical, and creative roles that pair humans with AI. "Rather than solely eliminating jobs, generative AI creates new demand in augmentation-prone roles, suggesting that human-AI collaboration is a key driver of labor market transformation," Srinivasan noted in the Harvard Business Review.
Workers, however, navigate uncertainty. While lucrative AI roles grab headlines, many question if mid-career adaptation is worth the effort. Luke Michel, a 68-year-old digital publishing veteran and former content strategist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, opted for early retirement after a buyout offer. "The time and energy to learn a whole new vocabulary and skill set wasn't worth it," he told the Wall Street Journal. This sentiment echoes widely: Pew Research Center finds 63% of employees rarely or never use AI at work.
Companies are already reshaping operations. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff disclosed cutting about 4,000 customer support roles due to AI. Microsoft shed roughly 15,000 workers, Amazon around 30,000 in recent months, and Oracle axed thousands more via email despite profit gains.
These changes ripple across sectors. A 2025 MIT study estimates AI's technical capabilities could handle cognitive and administrative tasks covering 11.7% of the labor market, from finance and health care to professional services. Economists warn that the real disruption lies ahead. "I don't think AI has hit the labor market yet... but I think it's coming," University of Pennsylvania economist Daniel Rock told the New York Times.