Bill Gates thinks AI could eventually make human workers unnecessary in most jobs, but he sees four exceptions: programmers, biologists, energy specialists and professional elite athletes. The Microsoft founder discussed the future of work during an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, as reported by LadBible.
His reasoning isn’t just about what machines can do. The list brings together fields where he expects humans to keep directing technology and solving complex problems, alongside sport, where human competitors are part of what audiences want to watch. It’s a prediction about people’s continuing role, not a guarantee of job security.
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Programmers
AI already helps write code. Gates nevertheless believes programmers will always be needed to guide the technology and develop it further. In his view, automating some coding tasks doesn’t eliminate the need for human specialists to direct what comes next.
Biologists
Researching living systems, making scientific discoveries and spotting new connections may continue to depend on human creativity and expertise. That’s why Gates sees little reason for biologists to fear full replacement by AI.
Energy specialists
Energy supply and production pose complex problems that Gates expects will continue to require human work, so he believes energy specialists will always have a job.
Professional elite athletes
Professional elite athletes are the least surprising category. Gates’s argument is about spectators, not computing power: he believes people won’t want to watch computers play against one another.
And the jobs exposed to AI
Separately, Microsoft examined which occupations have the most tasks AI could take over from people. Its analysis, published in 2025 and covered by BigGoFinance, identified 40 occupations particularly exposed to AI’s expansion. The examples below concern work-related tasks, not predicted percentages of workers losing their jobs.
Interpreters and translators
Interpreters and translators topped the list, with AI potentially affecting 98% of their work-related tasks.
Historians, mathematicians and proofreaders
The estimated exposure was 91% for historians, mathematicians and proofreaders, and 90% for automatic coders.
Journalists
Microsoft’s analysis estimated that the spread of AI tools could affect 81% of journalists’ work-related activities.
Writers and authors
The estimated share was 85% for writers and authors, and 83% for technical writers.
Those figures don’t mean that 98% of interpreters and translators, or 81% of journalists, will lose their jobs. The research examined how much of an occupation’s tasks could be performed using AI, not whether an entire job could be done without human involvement.
