With a Subtitle: An encounter reveals how AI is taking jobs—and why true security is found in Christ, not tech.

A brief Excerpt: A chance Uber ride reveals how artificial intelligence is quietly replacing human jobs. But the deeper issue isn’t technology—it’s where we place our hope. A Biblical reflection on AI, work, and finding true security in Jesus Christ.

The Author is: Zack Duncan

I met D at the Charlotte airport around 8:30 PM on Saturday, March 7th.

I had arrived from Hartford (BDL) about 30 minutes before and had been waiting for my connecting flight to make it back home to Greensboro.

But the connection was delayed. And, after an additional delay was announced, I decided I was going to take the relatively short drive to Greensboro.

Uber was my best option once I learned that there were no one-way rental cars available.

That’s how I met D. He had a 4.95-star Uber rating and arrived precisely on time.

And, like my last Uber driver, “O,” the former atheist who said demons led him to Jesus, D had a story he was willing to share.

His story is precisely the scenario that Citrini research recently put forward in their Substack post on AI and The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis.

Just as Citrini’s future scenario envisions, D had been a white-collar employee who lost his job to AI and was now at work in the gig economy.

The Impact of Automation

D had worked for a large financial firm since the late 90’s. He worked in IT roles, including systems administration, later moving into IT project management.

Unfortunately, D found himself in the type of role that was tailor-made for agentic AI disruption.

For any of the non-AI experts (like me) out there, here’s a quick explainer:

• Regular AI: Companies deploy chatbots to answer specific customer questions.
• Agentic AI: AI “agents” that can autonomously plan, make decisions, and execute complex workflows. Many core project management skills are squarely in the agentic AI wheelhouse.

And so, D found himself no longer with the company he had been with for nearly 30 years.

He also told me about the trading pit where equities and other financial instruments were bought and sold.

The Change in the Pit

Back when he had first started, there were hundreds of traders in the daily hubbub. Perhaps as many as three or four hundred.

Many of them were young. They bought flashy cars and splashed money around with their entry-level roles with generous salaries.

By 2010, the number of traders was down to 200.

Automation had taken a leading role, and there were fewer humans needed for the work. There were still entry-level roles, but far less than in the past.

By 2026, the total number of traders in the pit had dropped to 30.

Most of them are now senior-level roles that are responsible for driving strategy.

The few junior-level positions that are left monitor, audit, and manage AI agents. Humans simply are no longer needed for the routine tasks that AI can do far more cheaply and quickly.

Those were the everyday tasks that entry-level workers were once trained on as they got their start in the business.

This is the promise of AI.

AI will make us more efficient and will free us up to do more things.

This promise has partially been shown to be true. AI truly does make us more efficient.

But are we free to do more things?

The current evidence suggests that productivity gains have not resulted in more free time but only more work. The Jevons paradox suggests that we will only continue to work harder as AI gets more efficient.

There’s an inevitable efficiency trap.

If agentic AI makes certain tasks 90% simpler for a human, there won’t be a net reduction in human work. There will be 10 times more work, while the nature of the work that remains will likely be more stressful and less fulfilling than the work it replaced.

Another example: email replacing handwritten letters.

Email was a breakthrough technological invention that promised smoother and easier communication. It partially delivered…and brought along our now overflowing inboxes that are a significant source of new stress that humans didn’t deal with before.

Who Does This Help?

In the case of D and his former co-workers, who benefits from the productivity gains coming from agentic AI?

The winners are obviously not the traders or the people who want to be traders. The CEO of this firm said that in 2025, there were 200,000 applications for a total of 2,000 entry-level roles. That makes it 4x more competitive than getting into Harvard.

The gains of efficiency flow upwards towards capital and away from human labor. Resources are reinvested in AI capabilities and away from human staffing.

Humans are being outcompeted.

AI is a Subtle Lie

AI is incredibly powerful. This is absolutely true. It has the capacity to change our world. This is also true.

It’s also true that AI can be destructive. It destroys jobs as it creates wealth.

And if AI doesn’t ultimately promote human flourishing, is there any real reason to be excited about it?

I think the answer is increasingly obvious.

AI looks a whole lot like the deceiver in the Garden. Suggesting that if we only had more knowledge, we would be fulfilled. Intimating that what we have already is not enough and that we should demand more.

This is precisely how demonic deception works. It relies on things that are mostly true. The lie seems subtle at first. But it becomes more obvious in time.

Wrapping Up

D doesn’t believe he’ll ever work in IT again.

There simply aren’t roles available for someone like him in project management. AI can do it far more cheaply and efficiently.

The encouraging part of his story?

D is a committed believer in Jesus, and this is a chance to become more centered on Him. Without hope in Christ, his dramatic life change would not only be challenging and disorienting, but would also likely be deeply depressing.

With Jesus, life can still be hard, but it’s a life where our true hope isn’t found in our jobs or anything we might achieve on earth. Our identity is secure in Heaven through Christ.

And that leads me to my hope for AI. Because if the growth in agentic AI continues to lead to massive job disruption, there may be more occasions for all of us to ask hard questions about life.

Why are we here? What’s the point of it all? And where are we going after?

All of these questions find their answers in one Name.

Jesus is real. Jesus is God. Jesus saves.