Shafaq News- Baghdad

When Farah finished her degree in media studies in Baghdad, she did what graduates everywhere do: she sent her resume to newsrooms, companies and offices, looking for a first job in editing, content or administration. What she found instead was a shrinking set of openings, and a growing sense that the work itself was changing under her feet.

"I was looking for a way in, even at a modest salary, just to learn and gain experience," she said. "Then I started noticing that a lot of the jobs I was applying for could be done, in large part, with AI tools." Tasks she had trained for- rewriting copy, drafting first versions, summarizing and organizing information- are now faster with software, she said, which has raised the bar for what a new graduate is expected to bring. A degree and some writing experience once felt like a reasonable start. Now she feels she has to arrive already fluent in the tools.

Farah's experience captures a shift that specialists say is beginning to reshape Iraq's job market. The work most exposed, they say, is routine and repetitive: data entry, administrative tasks, some accounting, archiving and correspondence, along with basic media content and parts of customer service. The change is gradual, and there is no sign yet of jobs disappearing at scale. The sharper risk falls on new graduates, who have long relied on these entry-level roles as the gateway to experience.

Ali Karim, a technology specialist, said AI is already affecting the nature of office work in Iraq but that its impact remains incremental. Iraqi institutions, he said, may increasingly turn to automation to cut time and cost, trimming the need for some routine tasks even as new roles emerge around data, systems management and AI itself. “The decisive factor will be whether a worker can use the technology: those who pair professional skills with AI tools will be better placed to hold onto their jobs.”

The point most of the specialists returned to is that these professions are being redefined rather than erased. Nawar al-Saadi, a professor of international economics, cautioned against calling it the end of clerical or media work. AI "redefines" such jobs, he said, and an employee who uses the tools well may become more productive than one working the traditional way, which will change hiring standards themselves.

Where the pressure shows most clearly is in new hiring rather than layoffs. Ahmed Eid, an economic researcher, said the greater danger lies in recruitment: an institution that once needed several employees for a set of office tasks may now manage with fewer once AI tools are in place. That adds strain to an Iraqi labor market that already struggles to absorb the country's graduates.

Eid expects new opportunities to open for those who combine their original fields with digital skills, and argues that retraining will be central to who finds work in the coming years.

Al-Saadi pointed to the idea of a "hybrid specialist": the accountant who also understands AI and data analysis, the administrator fluent in automation, the journalist who uses AI tools while keeping the skills of investigation, analysis and critical thinking. Iraqi universities, he said, have an opportunity to redesign these fields around a mix of academic knowledge and digital ability, turning the fear of lost jobs into a capacity to create new ones.

The Iraqi anxiety arrives as international data points to a wider shift. The International Labour Organization reported that global youth unemployment edged up to 12.4 percent in 2025, about 67 million people aged 15 to 24, and noted the decline of clerical and administrative roles that have traditionally carried young people into the workforce. A Stanford University study covering late 2022 to mid-2025 found employment falling for workers aged 22 to 25 in the occupations most exposed to AI, particularly software development and customer service, even as it held up for older workers in the same fields.

The Budget Lab at Yale, which tracks the question closely, has found that since ChatGPT's launch in 2022, AI has so far changed jobs more than it has eliminated them, with no clear economy-wide link between its use and overall shifts in US employment or unemployment.

For Farah, the shift is already concrete: her degree alone no longer opens the door, and she is now trying to add the digital and AI skills that would let her compete.

Read more: Digital leap, analog floor: Iraq traverses the AI divide