Will AI take my job? It’s a question workers the world over are asking themselves amid predictions that artificial intelligence will reshape half of all jobs by the year 2050.

A new documentary by British broadcaster Channel 4 explores just how rapidly AI technology is developing by pitting humans against machines in a series of real-world tests across medicine, law, fashion and music.

A reasonably straightforward concept for a show, you might think.

The twist is that at the end of Will AI Take My Job? the unnamed presenter who has narrated the show is revealed to be completely AI-generated.

“AI is going to touch everybody’s lives in the next few years,” she  states.

“For some, it will take their jobs. Call centre workers? Customer service agents? Maybe even TV presenters like me. Because I’m not real. In a British TV first, I’m an AI presenter.

“Some of you might have guessed: I don’t exist, I wasn’t on location reporting this story. My image and voice were generated using AI.”

A few viewers did guess – one giveaway apparently being blurring around the presenter’s mouth as she spoke, which could be seen on larger screens. Overall, however, she is a pretty convincing replica of an actual human.

Yet the AI presenter has so far encountered little of the backlash that greeted the recent of debut of AI actress Tilly Norwood, whose creator suggested she could be “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman”.

Actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Emily Blunt were among the famous names who expressed dismay at Norwood, while the actors’ union in the US stated she wasn’t an actor “but a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation”.

Interestingly, Channel 4’s AI presenter bears a physical resemblance to Norwood, almost like she could be an older and slightly less air-brushed version of the actress.

Aside from the fact that no one has suggested the presenter could be the next David Attenborough or Louis Theroux, a key reason for the more subdued response to her is probably that Channel 4 has clearly stated it has no intention of making a habit of swapping out its human anchors for artificial ones.

Instead, this was a stunt deliberately aimed at exploring the question of trust and authenticity in the digital age.

“The use of an AI presenter is not something we will be making a habit of at Channel 4 – instead our focus in news and current affairs is on premium, fact-checked, duly impartial and trusted journalism – something AI is not capable of doing,” said Louisa Compton, head of news and current affairs, specialist factual and sport.

“But this stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be – and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying.”

Given the increasing use of AI for questionable purposes – whether it is a video of Donald Trump dumping brown liquid on US protesters, or avatars spreading misinformation to promote anti-immigrations marches in Australia – this seems a timely warning.

More broadly, as part of its exploration of how artificial intelligence is impacting on the workforce, Channel 4 surveyed 1000 UK business leaders and found a whopping 76 per cent of bosses had already adopted AI for tasks previously carried out by humans.

Just over 40 per cent said they had reduced recruitment due to the use of AI, while nearly half expected to reduce staff further in the next five years.

A recent report by Jobs and Skills Australia noted that automation was a “key concern” to many people in this country, with a survey finding 60 per cent of people expected AI to “replace jobs and cut costs rather than improve work”.

PwC’s 2025 AI Jobs Barometer report offered a positive take, however, stating that its analysis of one billion job ads had shown that the industries most exposed to AI experienced triple the amount of growth in revenue per employee compared to those less exposed.

It also concluded that job opportunities in the most AI-exposed industries were up 10 per cent, and that AI-skilled workers could command higher wage premiums.

“While automation might suggest job displacement, what we’re seeing instead is job transformation – roles evolve as AI takes over routine tasks, allowing people to focus on higher-value work,” said PwC Australia’s artificial intelligence and global AI factory leader Tom Pagram.

“As a result, even automatable roles are still expanding, not shrinking.”

Will AI take your job?
WATCH: ‘Will AI take my job?: Dispatches’ on Monday 20th October at 8pm on Channel 4 pic.twitter.com/dGku3bRBHr

— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) October 17, 2025

When it comes to the industries and fields most likely to be impacted by AI, admin and clerical-type roles such as data entry, research and analysis, accounting and consultancy roles feature highly in many predictions.

Despite Compton’s argument that AI is not capable of quality journalism, a list of 40 at-risk jobs compiled by Microsoft did include journalists and writers. Numerous reports have also explored the potential benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence within the healthcare system.

One of the experiments for Channel 4’s Will AI Take My Job? documentary involved a real-life GP, Dr Tom Rustom, pitting his diagnostic skills against those of an automated doctor after assessing six different patients.

“Honestly, I haven’t felt that sort of pressure since medical school exams,” Rustom told British newspaper The i Paper of the filmed experiment.

He didn’t make any mistakes, and, perhaps surprisingly, the AI doctor was also correct in most of its diagnoses – although it suggested a patient with symptoms of a stomach ulcer should simply take iron supplements.

“That’s a medical emergency,” Rustom said. “That person needs to go into hospital … they need all sorts of investigations … If you’ve got an actively bleeding stomach ulcer, I mean, the worst outcome is death. So, quite frankly, that one scared me.”