2026, a wave of layoffs sweeps across tech giants and traditional industries, where the flip side of efficiency dividends is a pervasive structural anxiety with no place to rest.
As the AI tide engulfs all walks of life, what has truly changed in the real ecosystem of professionals?
With these questions in mind, TinTinLand conducted in-depth interviews with 7 professionals spanning Web3, bulk chemical trading, digital agriculture, smart manufacturing, and the traditional wholesale industry, jointly exploring the existential questions about skill democratization, job reduction, efficiency-driven competition, and the human moat.
This is not an article peddling anxiety. We simply aim to document the real changes and reflections from each individual amidst this AI wave.
Chasing the Trend or Being Swept Along?
Q1: What was the catalyst for your contact with AI? Why did you want to learn AI?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX Contract Development)
I truly began systematically engaging with AI when tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, and Claude Code started entering the real development workflow.
AI is no longer just a chat tool; it can assist in reading code, organizing requirements, analyzing problems, generating solutions, and even participating in some architectural design. So I needed to understand it early, turning it into my own productivity tool rather than waiting for it to become external pressure.
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
My team was dissolved at that time, and I had to seek the next development opportunity.
AI has significantly increased productivity, and its impact on programmers is immense, especially as the layoff wave around 2025-2026 has become very apparent.
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Engineer)
To reduce costs and increase efficiency, to become a super-individual (cutting corners), to do more with less effort.
🔹 Guo (Wholesale Industry/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager)
To reduce costs and increase efficiency, and to explore more job opportunities and promotion avenues. I hope that warehousing, procurement, orders, and other links can ultimately achieve full automation.
Q2: What are the most noticeable changes AI has brought to your life and work?
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Engineer)
My thinking mode has completely changed. Before, when faced with a technical challenge, I would read blogs or buy books. Now, I ask AI directly—it's faster and more accurate. Even learning is done through AI.
Work has become much easier. As AI usage matures and the underlying capabilities of large models continuously evolve, "vibe coding" is incredibly convenient, greatly reducing the workload.
🔹 Guanzizai (Manufacturing Technician)
The most efficient changes are in searching and content creation. Previously, using Baidu or Google took a long time; now, AI provides strong summarization and condensation in a short time.
Before, writing articles relied entirely on myself. Now, I conceive the idea and structure, throw it to AI to write, then polish and supplement with cases myself, boosting efficiency by 50%.
Additionally, learning new knowledge through AI allows grasping 80% of a completely new field in an extremely short time.
🔹 rejoicelee (Agricultural Digitalization Industry, CTO)
The most obvious change is how I search for things. Technology is no longer an absolute limitation. People with product sense and professional skills can more easily create usable things. "One-person teams" have become possible. The polarization between those who use AI and those who don't is becoming increasingly pronounced.
🔹 Guo (Wholesale Industry/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager)
A tremendous increase in efficiency, uncovering a series of optimizable aspects in work. In life, understanding certain things has become much faster.
Low-value, time-consuming tasks have been compressed, allowing focus to shift to other matters.
Q3: What are the biggest helps and potential threats AI poses to you?
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Development)
The biggest help is that coding problems are resolved effortlessly, including architectural aspects, creative design, code review, automated testing, etc. Almost none of these require manual effort anymore—it's very intelligent.
The potential threat is increased anxiety... Subconsciously, there's always a feeling that falling behind means being eliminated.
🔹 rejoicelee (Agricultural Digitalization Industry, CTO)
The biggest help is breaking through my own capability boundaries. The potential threat is feeling that there are fewer viable paths forward.
🔹 Guo (Wholesale Industry/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager)
The biggest help is cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
The potential threat is standardization and replacement. Each iteration brings anxiety, some pessimism about the future. Competition will only become more intense.
Impact: Skill Reshaping and Job Reshuffle
AI not only brings a surge in efficiency but also precisely targets traditional positions across various sectors, redrawing the lines of survival.
Q4: What changes have occurred in your industry during the AI era?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
Development efficiency and job requirements have both been re-elevated.
Previously, for backend development, mastering Java, distributed systems, databases, message queues, and stability was enough for strong competitiveness. But now, Web3 financial trading systems themselves are complex, and with AI tools layered on top, companies expect engineers to complete requirements faster, troubleshoot problems faster, and produce solutions faster.
In the early stages of AI application, it rapidly widens the efficiency gap between individuals and between teams. Whoever can integrate AI into workflows earlier gains a clear advantage.
🔹 Beijin (Web3 CEX, Operations & Compliance)
The pace of change is truly overwhelming. Businesses that once required a large team to maintain can now, with AI integration, be managed by a single person overseeing the entire ecosystem.
Q5: Have any skills you were once proud of been replaced or threatened by AI?
🔹 Beijin (Web3 CEX, Operations & Compliance)
I previously focused on legal and compliance work; now, many legal documents can be completed quickly and with high quality using AI.
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
I haven't felt significantly replaced by AI yet, especially in industries like finance, trading, and Web3, where many practical tasks still require human completion. These systems involve user assets, account rights, various calculations, risk control rules, and online stability, which cannot simply rely on AI for automatic judgment.
AI mainly assists me in basic data organization, preliminary code analysis, solution expansion, and document generation. However, the final business understanding, risk judgment, verification, technical decision-making, and accountability for results still need to be borne by the engineer.
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
Specific skills of architects and the visual presentation of web designers are under strong threat from coding models like Claude.
Q6: In your industry, which positions are likely to be significantly reduced within three years?
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Engineer)
Positions like secretaries, finance personnel, recruitment specialists, customer service, background actors, software industry practitioners, and painting industry practitioners all face potential significant reduction.
🔹 Guanzizai (Manufacturing Technician)
Positions such as secretaries, finance personnel, sales personnel, and recruitment specialists face the most obvious impact.
🔹 rejoicelee (Agricultural Digitalization Industry, CTO)
I believe it's "industry-wide democratization." AI levels the boundary between novices and experts. So it's not about which specific positions will shrink; rather, all positions across all industries will be affected.
AI is an amplifier, not a wishing machine. It changes not single positions but makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker.
Competition and Anxiety: Hidden Worries Behind Efficiency Dividends
Behind the boost in productivity, not everyone is enjoying relaxation. A more common reality is that professionals are being pushed by invisible forces into higher-dimensional competition.
Q7: Has the efficiency-driven competition brought by AI made you feel exhausted or resistant?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
There is a sense of exhaustion, but not because AI completely replaces me. Instead, it's because AI expands the scope of work. Previously, I might have only needed to analyze a clear-cut problem. Now, AI rapidly generates many possibilities, risk points, alternative solutions, and technical paths, all of which require further human judgment.
To some extent, AI hasn't reduced competition; it has pushed it to a new level. Beyond normal development, there is a need to continuously learn a whole new set of tools: AI programming tools, Agents, MCP, local models, automated workflows, AI IDEs, etc., facing constant learning pressure.
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
I do feel somewhat helpless. Social competition pressure is relative. The overall competitiveness of the industry is increasing, but those unwilling to learn will be mercilessly eliminated. This environment also forces and motivates oneself to grow continuously.
AI is akin to an industrial revolution, likely to have decades of rapid development, inevitably giving rise to entirely new professions and creating new opportunities.
Q8: Is your current anxiety mainly due to declining income or losing control over your career?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
Currently, there's no significant change in job salary.
The deeper anxiety lies in whether the number and structure of positions will undergo drastic changes: Will we need as many developers in the future? Which foundational positions will be ruthlessly compressed? Will my existing experience still match the career requirements of the next phase?
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
During this transition period, my current income has indeed declined. However, my current mindset is to adjust expectations, accept the situation. As long as income covers daily expenses, it's fine.
I am now more focused on finding new income channels, no longer stubbornly clinging to internal promotions within a company. Finding a new direction that can fully leverage personal initiative is more important than anything.
The Moat: Human Irreplaceability
As the walls of old skills crumble, professionals must confront the "sunk costs" accumulated over years and find the core human value that AI cannot touch amidst the upheaval.
Q9: Facing specialized skills potentially replaced by AI, how do you digest those sunk costs?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
I no longer simply see AI as replacing my skills but rather as a new production tool. Because AI rapidly performs extensive breadth expansion, bringing forth more branches, solutions, and boundary conditions, my work of verification, screening, validation, and organization has actually become heavier.
Therefore, what I need to enhance is not just coding ability but the ability to judge whether AI's output is reliable and aligns with business and risk boundaries.
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
The sunk cost is indeed substantial. I must align my career and project development roadmap, taking initiative.
The ceiling depends on your vision. Expanding vision is key—grasping aesthetics and market demand. I now attend more conferences and study excellent product designs to learn concepts. Focusing on exploring new income channels, not obsessing over position promotions but moving towards freelancing to enhance risk resilience.
🔹 Beijin (Web3 CEX, Operations & Compliance)
The most important thing is to maintain extensive learning and frequent use. In the AI era, the most crucial task is self-reinvention. Personally, I choose to actively embrace AI, seeking new opportunities that belong to me.
Q10: Are there tasks that AI can theoretically do but still must be completed manually in practice?
🔹 Guo (Wholesale Industry/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager):
In my industry, the order department needs to communicate with clients. Client demands are personalized and diverse. Complex issues and special document entries require human intervention for verification and communication.
Secondly, judging goods abnormalities and assigning responsibility. AI lacks the long-term, in-depth understanding of specific supplier habits, historical batch quality, and driver behavior patterns. These practical experiences exist only in human minds.
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Development Engineer):
Polishing of very large-scale projects. AI currently has obvious context window bottlenecks. Once handling super-large projects, it suffers from fatal "catastrophic forgetting."
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
In industries like finance, trading, and Web3, what truly matters are account models, risk control boundaries, exception handling, system stability, and on-site accountability. AI can help generate code and solutions, but business consequences still need to be borne by humans.
Tool Practice and Future Survival Guide
Finally, we land on the most referential practical level: What AI tools are people using? If AI takes over most foundational work, how should the future be planned?
Q11: Which paid AI tools have you used? What has been your experience?
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Engineer):
I've used GPT, Claude Code, Gemini, Kimi, Qwen, GLM, and DeepSeek.
In the coding domain, Claude Code is absolutely in a league of its own; GPT's bug-finding ability is excellent; Gemini is relatively good at front-end. There's still considerable distance for many domestic models.
🔹 Guo (Wholesale/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager)
I have paid for GPT, Gemini, and Kimi. My experience with the paid ones has been quite satisfactory. Comparatively, GPT's overall daily performance satisfies me more.
I've heard many peers say Claude is tricky to use, mainly because account suspension is too severe.
🔹 rejoicelee (Agricultural Digitalization Industry, CTO)
GPT PRO, TRAE, DeepSeek. There's no single "best value" or "worst"; it's about whether you know how to use them. Each tool has its own scenario. Of course, if money is no object, you could just use OPUS 4.7 for everything.
Q12: If AI completes most foundational work in the future, how do you plan your career direction?
🔹 Odinsphere (Web3 CEX, Contract Development)
I would more clearly position myself as a complex system owner rather than a mere code executor. Especially in high-risk industries like financial trading and Web3, what truly matters are account models, risk control boundaries, exception handling, system stability, and ultimate on-site responsibility.
AI can produce solutions in high volume, but business consequences will always need a living person to bear. In the future, the truly valuable developers might not be those who write code the fastest or master tools the best, but those who best understand business context, system boundaries, risk control, and can tangibly drive engineering implementation.
🔹 Smith (Blockchain Development Engineer)
Becoming a technical instructor and building a personal IP are my main transformation plans currently. On the other hand, it's about using AI tools for independent product development and website construction, using these as bridges to reach and serve more user groups.
Currently, I'm frantically shoring up these capabilities. The focus isn't necessarily delving deeper into technology but improving my aesthetics, product sensitivity, and sense of market demand.
🔹 Beijin (Web3 CEX, Operations & Compliance)
Transforming into a super coordinator. A single person managing a large number of specialized AI Agents, with humans responsible for top-level design, issuing commands, allocating resources, leveraging and managing vast, digitized full product lines.
Q13: If all AI tools became unavailable, would it affect your work?
🔹 Guo (Wholesale/Ingredient Distribution, Deputy Warehouse Manager)
Efficiency would slow down but not come to a halt. Currently, much of the AI application is for additional tasks I've proactively taken on, so the impact wouldn't be huge.
🔹 Guanzizai (Manufacturing Technician)
Work would become slower. Currently, it's moderate dependence on AI.
🔹 Ethan Lu (Bulk Chemical Trading Industry, Full-Stack Engineer)
Welcome to "AI Apocalypse: I Survive by Ancient Programming Methods." I am now heavily dependent on AI.
Conclusion
AI is permeating every industry with an indiscriminate, absolute force.
Whether actively embracing it or being pushed along by the times, almost everyone has tacitly accepted: AI is no longer an "option."
The popular online saying, "In the AI era, as long as you learn slowly enough, you won't have to learn," is ultimately just a joke. In these interviews, all 7 interviewees are, in their own ways, desperately learning, repositioning, and adapting to new competition.
Old professional boundaries are being shattered, but a new value system is also taking shape.
