A column by Yonsei University economics professor Han Soon-koo, published on 2026.07.25, argues that artificial intelligence (AI) now threatens the stability of the service sector, echoing historical concerns about technological job displacement. The author recalls how Princeton professor Alan Blinder’s argument that service industries like teaching are resistant to automation due to a lack of significant productivity gains from technology once guided his career choice. However, the rise of AI has undermined this logic. Historically, job losses occurred only in primary and secondary industries, as enhanced machinery could not replicate human services like a barber’s sense of fashion or a professor’s interactive teaching. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, in 1963, 63.1% of workers were in primary industries. The column notes that while the Industrial Revolution created more jobs than it destroyed, AI now threatens the stability of the service sector, where employment had previously shifted as technology advanced.