Can Personality Science Help Reinvent an Obsolete Career?

AI is no longer an abstract future threat but an active force reshaping the job market. In the first quarter of this year, over 100,000 tech workers lost their jobs, with many companies explicitly citing AI automation as the reason behind those cuts. 

But it's not just tech and admin roles that are at risk. The OECD reports that 27% of jobs in finance, medicine, law, engineering, business and other skilled professions—long considered white-collar mainstays—are now at risk from AI‑driven automation. Goldman Sachs estimates that up to 300 million full-time jobs globally could be automated or significantly altered by generative AI over the next decade, especially in developed economies.

Older professionals may be especially vulnerable. According to a 2023 report by Generation and the OECD, 25% of employers believe candidates over 55 are less willing to embrace new technologies, while only 8% hold this view for candidates in their 20s. This suggests that older workers may be less likely to be offered retraining when their roles are automated. 

With all this in mind, the question becomes: how can you navigate career changes when your entire profession is on the line? One powerful, but often overlooked, tool is personality science.

Leaning Into Your People Skills

AI is extremely good at repetitive, rules-based or data-heavy tasks, but it falls short on the human side of work—the kind that involves empathy and interpersonal nuance. 

Research shows that AI chatbots like Alexa and Siri score high on surface-level emotional reactions, but much lower on deeper empathetic behaviors, such as asking thoughtful follow-up questions or offering personalized reflection.

In other words, AI can sound empathetic, but it cannot interpret or engage with your emotional experience. If you’ve ever confided in an AI chat bot, you’ll know it’s like talking to a busy customer service rep who says all the right words but doesn’t really mean them.

This disconnect is likely why people rate responses as more supportive and helpful when they believe they come from a human, even if they were actually AI-generated. It’s not just the words that matter; it’s knowing a human is on the other end—a sense of genuine understanding that AI still can’t replicate.

If your career is headed for the AI chopping block, consider pivoting to roles that tap into this uniquely human ability to relate to others. The World Economic Forum’s white paper, “Jobs of Tomorrow” notes that jobs least exposed to automation are those requiring a high degree of personal interaction. Counseling, therapy and coaching are obvious options, but this capacity is equally valuable in client relationship management, team leadership, HR, customer success and community building.

Personality science can help you hone into roles and pivot careers that fit you best. For example, people who score high in the personality dimension of Agreeableness in the Big Five system excel at building trust and creating psychological safety, making them well-suited for counseling or employee support roles. Those high in Extraversion and Conscientiousness often thrive in leadership or management positions, where motivating teams and coordinating projects are key.

Turning Creativity Into Career Direction

Despite the abundance of quirky AI-generated content online, AI isn’t great at true creativity. Research finds humans are about 35 times more likely to generate truly creative ideas, while AI tends to produce “mid-level novelty” but rarely anything radically original. Researchers note that AI’s creativity is largely combinatorial, meaning it remixes what it’s already seen. As Dr. Hanel, one of the researchers behind the study, puts it: “AI can be a tireless creative companion—but without human direction, it tends to circle around the familiar.”

In the workplace, creativity isn’t about originality for its own sake, but generating ideas that are both innovative and feasible enough to implement. Humans balance originality with appropriateness well, but AI struggles to weigh both factors. It often suggests ideas that are either too unusual to be useful or too practical to be original. For example, AI might propose a wildly original promotional campaign, but a human is more likely to develop something fresh and creative that also fits the brand, meets budget and resonates with the audience.

This means jobs requiring creativity are likely to remain safe from total AI automation, at least for now. The WEF’s white paper supports this, stating that “workers in these jobs would not have their tasks replaced by LLMs; rather, LLMs would supercharge their ability to complete these tasks,” especially those demanding abstract reasoning, creativity and problem-solving.

So if you're a creative individual, tapping into that strength might be the key to surviving the AI onslaught. But just like with people skills, not every creative role fits every creative person. And that’s where personality science can help you find the right fit. For example, if you’re high in Openness to Experience and Introversion on the Big Five, you may thrive in deep, independent creative work like writing or concept development. If you're high in Openness, Agreeableness and Extraversion, you’re likely better suited to collaborative, people-focused roles like campaign development and creative direction. 

Standing Out From Other Candidates

Beyond identifying new roles and sharpening your human skills, you’ll need to communicate those strengths to employers. Simply claiming “excellent people skills” or “creativity” isn’t enough—everyone says that.

What sets you apart is communicating your strengths authentically. Personality science can give you language and evidence for this. For example, instead of saying “I am a natural team player,” you might say: “From my experience, and what personality tests have shown, I score very highly in Agreeableness and Extraversion. That means I’m not only good at building positive relationships but also genuinely energized by working with others.” It’s not what most interviewers expect, but that’s exactly what makes it memorable—especially when many candidates rely on vague buzzwords pulled straight from the job description.

You can go further by including personality traits from a test you’ve taken in your CV. This practice is still rare, so it can help you stand out. Plus, since many companies use psychometric tests in recruitment, showcasing your scores may give you an edge by showing you’re already thinking the way they do.

The Big Five is ideal for this: it’s credible, widely used and easy for employers to interpret. You can take the test here, and then include your results under a “Psychometric Profile” section in your CV, with subheadings showing your scores on each Big Five dimension.