Will historians really be replaced by AI? They remain skeptical.
— headline in The Washington Post, for an article by Todd C. Frankel, on August 25, 2025
At some point in the distant future, historians will look back on 2025, and make note of a report from Microsoft predicting the 40 jobs most likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence… and the 40 least likely to be replaced.
Job No. 2 mostly likely to be replaced by advanced computer networks:
Historian.
Of course, this is an assumption, that historians will look back on 2025. Because historians might not even exist. They might all be working as Dredge Operators, the job least likely to be replaced by AI, according to the Microsoft report titled “Working with AI: Measuring the Occupational Implications of Generative AI”.
Even AI doesn’t want to work as a Dredge Operator.
The Microsoft research team seemed to have it out for writers and researchers of all types. “Writers and Authors” were listed at No. 5. “News Analysts, Reporters, Journalists” were No. 16.
Technical Writers, No. 18
Proofreaders and Copy Markers, No. 19
Editors, No. 21
Public Relations Specialists, No. 23
Other jobs, like “Dredge Operator”, appear to be safe from AI’s impending employment annihilation. The following jobs might be options for former writers and historians, to obtain meaningful employment in the future:
Floor Sanders and Finishers
Pile Driver Operators
Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
Foundry Mold and Coremakers
Water Treatment Plant and System Operators
Thankfully, “Data Scientists” — like the people who wrote the Microsoft report, for example — were 29th most likely to lose their jobs. Couldn’t happen too soon, in my humble opinion.
But that raises the obvious question: Was the Microsoft report written mainly by AI?
Naturally, I have a soft place in my heart for journalists. But I’m even more concerned about the historians. Journalists typically get their work read by the general public on a daily basis. But who reads history books nowadays?
And furthermore, is “history” even a thing? I remember the subject as my most boring class in high school.
The basic process seems to be, you find a letter written by some famous person, to their wife or their second cousin, and then you compare it to another letter that some other famous person wrote to their mistress or uncle, and you flip a coin to see which person was telling the truth. When in fact, they were both embellishing the truth. Especially the letter to the mistress.
Or worse yet, you take what a journalist wrote in a newspaper and assume it’s an accurate account.
Speaking as a journalist, you should never believe what you read in a newspaper. Ask me how I know.
The problem with AI taking historians’ jobs? AI does its research in precisely the same way, except AI is reading websites. If there’s anything more misleading than reading a newspaper or a personal letter, it’s reading a website.
Luckily, universities are now producing about 20 percent fewer history majors than a decade ago, as students have flocked to computer studies and engineering, according to government data. And there weren’t that many a decade ago.
According to The Washington Post, the jobs least likely to be replaced “involve physical labor or operating machinery: Dishwasher, Roofer, Embalmer.”
If historians want to stay in the running, they’ve got to make their jobs more physically demanding. Or get some heavy machinery involved. If Dredge Operators can hold onto their jobs, you’d think a PhD in history could figure out some kind of strategy.
At some point, though, generative AI is going to figure out the same thing every high school student figures out: that history is a boring waste of time, unless you’re one of those kids trying to get straight ‘A’s.
And not only that. AI will quickly learn that ‘history’ completely changes, every time a new political party moves into the White House. I’m pretty sure that the U.S. never fought a war over slavery. And if we did, the red states won.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.