It's not that AI is smarter than me. It's that companies finally have the excuse they've been looking for to not hire people like me at all.

I use AI every single day. I think it's the future and I want to be part of it. I don't have the hate that most people carry. I am hopeful.

Claude helps me brainstorm. Perplexity helps me research better. I'm not some Boomer yelling at the cloud about technology ruining everything. I'm fluent in these tools. I'm faster now than I was at 30.

Gen X is not scared of technology. We are warriors. We adapt.

And I still can't get hired.

Not because AI replaced my job. Because AI gave companies permission to stop hiring people like me entirely. Sound like a conspiracy theory? It's not.

Let me explain.

The Excuse They've Been Waiting For

I've been freelancing and ghostwriting for over 20 years. I've built websites, written thousands of articles, designed brands from scratch.

I got my degree at 55, summa cum laude, because I thought it would help.

I learned WordPress, HTML, CSS, JavaScript. I learned SEO. I learned content strategy. I learned AI tools because I knew they were coming and I wanted to stay ahead.

None of it mattered.

I send out applications. I hear nothing. I pitch clients. I get ghosted. I watch LinkedIn posts from 28-year-olds talking about how hard the job market is, and I think, "You have no idea."

Because here's what nobody's saying out loud: AI didn't make me obsolete. It made me expensive. Expendable. Easy to dismiss.

Companies look at my resume and they see someone who knows what they're worth. Someone who's been doing this long enough to expect decent pay. Someone who might actually push back when they try to underpay or overwork me.

But the truth is scarier, because even I have given up on ever earning a decent wage again and will take whatever I can get. But they still don't want me.

They look at AI. And they see something cheaper, faster, and less likely to complain.

But here's the kicker: they're not actually replacing me with AI. They're just not hiring anyone at all.

The Data Backs This Up

AI eliminated 77,999 jobs in 2025 across 342 tech company layoffs. But that's not the whole story.

40% of employers are planning to reduce their workforce because AI can automate tasks. Not because AI is doing those tasks better. Because companies finally have a reason to cut costs that sounds better than "we just don't want to pay people."

The World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report shows that 41% of employers worldwide intend to reduce their workforce in the next five years due to AI automation.

Here's what that actually looks like on the ground:

I applied for a content strategist role at a fintech company two months ago. The job description was everything I've done for two decades. I didn't even get a rejection email. But I stalk companies I am looking to get hired at regularly.

Two weeks later, I saw the same company post about how they're "leveraging AI to scale content production." Translation: they're not hiring anyone. They're using ChatGPT and calling it innovation.

It's Not Just Me

My LinkedIn friend Sarah is 52. She's a project manager with 25 years of experience. She's been unemployed for eight months. Not because she can't do the work. Because every job posting says they want someone who can "manage AI workflows" and "integrate automation tools."

She can learn that. She's been managing complex projects since before these hiring managers were born. But they won't even interview her.

Another friend, Mike, is 48. He's a graphic designer. In addition to some racism and ageism, he's watched his entire industry get gutted by AI image generators. But he's not worried about AI taking his job. He's worried about companies deciding they don't need designers at all because Midjourney is "good enough."

He's right to worry. AI could potentially replace up to 300 million jobs globally, with 85 million jobs expected to be replaced by 2025.

But here's what those numbers don't show: most of those jobs aren't being replaced by AI. They're just being eliminated. Companies are using AI as cover to do what they've wanted to do for years, shrink their workforce and squeeze more productivity out of fewer people.

The Real Problem

AI isn't the problem. I'm fine with AI. I use it. It makes my work better. As much as people on threads try to demonize it, and as many people on LinkedIn try to call people who use AI "lazy," I love it.

The problem is that companies are using AI as an excuse to avoid investing in people.

They don't want to hire older workers because we're "too expensive." They don't want to hire younger workers because they'd have to train them. They want people in their early 30s who already know everything, cost half what I do, and will work twice as hard without complaining.

Even then, Bloomberg finds that AI could replace more than 50% of the tasks performed by market research analysts and 67% of sales representatives' tasks, compared to just 9% and 21% for their managerial counterparts.

So, the people who are "safe" are the ones at the top. The ones making decisions. The ones who can afford to be expensive. These are the ones getting million dollar bonuses for cutting workforce costs.

The rest of us? We're disposable.

What This Actually Looks Like

I'm back in the Philippines with my family now. My son is autistic. My wife and I take care of him and our teenage daughter. I work from here, taking whatever freelance gigs I can find, trying to piece together enough income to keep us stable.

I'm writing articles like this hoping the Medium Partner Program will pay my electric bill.

I'm not poor. I'm not desperate. But I'm also not secure. And at 57, I should be.

I've done everything right. I learned the tools. I got the degree. I built the portfolio. I stayed current. I adapted.

And companies still look at me and see a liability instead of an asset.

Because AI gave them permission to.

The Lie We're All Being Sold

Here's what they're telling us: "AI will create new jobs. It will make you more productive. It will free you up to do more creative work."

Bullshit.

The World Economic Forum predicts 170 million new jobs will be created, but 92 million roles will be displaced, for a net increase of only 78 million jobs.

That sounds good until you realize those new jobs require skills most of us don't have and companies refuse to train us for.

77% of AI jobs require master's degrees, and 18% require doctoral degrees.

So, unless you're already highly educated, already technical, and already young enough that companies think you're worth the investment, you're screwed.

I have a BA. I have 20 years of experience. I use AI tools every day.

None of it matters.

What Nobody Wants to Admit

The job market didn't break because of AI. AI just exposed what was already true: companies don't want to invest in people anymore.

They don't want to train juniors. They don't want to pay for experience. They don't want to deal with workers who know their worth and won't accept garbage wages and unrealistic expectations.

AI just gave them a reason to stop pretending they ever cared.

And now we're all stuck in this nightmare where you're either too old, too junior, too expensive, or not technical enough. The sweet spot keeps shrinking. And AI keeps giving companies an excuse to make it smaller.

So, What Do We Do?

I don't have a good answer.

I'm still here. Still pitching. Still building. Still trying to prove I'm worth hiring even though the system has decided I'm not.

Some days I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. Like I'm trying to convince people that humans still have value in a world that's decided we're too expensive to keep around.

But I keep showing up. Because what else am I going to do? Give up? Let them win?

I'm 57. I've survived mental illness, heart attacks, financial collapse, and more breakdowns than I can count. I've rebuilt my life more times than most people have to in a lifetime.

If they think AI is going to make me quit, they don't know me at all.

But here's the truth: I shouldn't have to fight this hard. None of us should. We're not obsolete. We're experienced. We're skilled. We're adaptable. And if companies can't see that, it's not because AI made us irrelevant.

It's because they were looking for an excuse to get rid of us all along.

The bottom line: AI didn't make me unemployable. It just gave companies permission to admit they never wanted to hire me in the first place.

Have you experienced this? Are you watching AI get used as an excuse to not hire, not train, not invest in people? Drop your story in the comments. We need to talk about this.

Also, if you are on LinkedIn or Threads and want to connect, let's do!