Will your job be replaced by AI? Here are the roles most affected

AI usage is measured by “tokens,” which are small pieces of text that AI systems use to understand, analyze, and generate language. On average, one token is roughly equivalent to three-quarters of an English word.

There have been staggering increases in AI usage in 2026, with the increase in token usage vastly outweighing the decreasing “cost per token.”

The world’s top companies using AI have implemented “token leaderboards” to ensure their employees are getting as much productivity as possible from the most advanced models.

Trillions, sometimes thousands of trillions (quadrillions) of tokens have been used in the last few months for “agency use,” primarily for intermediaries that can perform tasks automatically. The problem is that incredible bills have piled up, so much so that many of these companies have now started rationing the use of these models.

This is important. This may indicate that there are limits to how much work can be automated. Virtual workers can be more expensive than humans. It depends on the task.

But one factor to note is that many companies, including Western ones, are turning to much cheaper forms of AI derived from Chinese models that are freely available on the market.

So there’s a lot of uncertainty here, but some clear trends are emerging.