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- 40 jobs most affected by Al as per Microsoft
40 jobs most affected by Al as per Microsoft
Plus: How to build mini-apps without any coding skills
Poonam Soni
January 06, 2026
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Welcome to AI Toast!
Here’s what’s on the menu today:
AI Impact on 40 Key Jobs
CES 2026: Physical AI Hits the Streets
Superhero Tools (AI Video)
Step by step tutorial on how to build apps with Opal
Quick Toasts: Satya Nadella says we should stop calling AI "slop"
Total read time: About 5 minutes, perfect for a quick coffee break.
Microsoft Research analyzed 200k Bing Copilot chats to rank jobs by AI applicability, focusing on info work like writing and communicating. Turns out, AI shines in creating, processing, and sharing knowledge across most roles.
AI tackles info work best: writing, editing, explaining ideas, chatting with customers, digging up facts.
Top jobs feeling it: writers, translators, journalists, sales reps, data pros, customer service stars.
Most roles get a boost somehow, since nearly every job mixes in some info handling.
Two ways it helps: workers team up with AI on their tasks, or hand off bits like quick answers.
Physical jobs like building or farming see less change, sticking to hands-on needs.
Success shines in teaching, communicating, less so in crunching data or making visuals.
Across dozens of roles, from interpreters and historians to concierges, telemarketers, PR specialists, management analysts, web developers, financial advisors, editors, proofreaders, journalists, mathematicians, political scientists, customer service reps, sales reps, technical writers, and more. AI boosts info tasks like writing, research, and customer chats, letting humans skip routine bits and shine in relationships or creativity.
Personal Take: AI opens doors to focus on what humans do best. Humans will evolve alongside AI, blending tech smarts with our creativity, empathy, and big-picture thinking to unlock bolder ways of working and innovating together.
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From January 6-9, CES 2026 spotlights "Physical AI," slamming intelligence into robots, gadgets, and silicon. Pre-show Media Days unleashed Intel firepower, NVIDIA beasts, and bots that fold your socks, reality just got smarter.
Intel Panther Lake: 18A debut, 16 cores/12 Xe-cores, 50 NPU TOPS, 27-hour battery marathon.
NVIDIA Rubin Arch: 336B transistors, AI data center kingpin, gaming? Nah.
AMD 9850X3D: 5.6GHz beast, 7% edge over 9800X3D.
Samsung Galaxy Book6: Panther Lake guts, 30 hours of playback juice.
HP EliteBoard G1a: Ryzen AI 300 mini-PC crammed in a keyboard.
LG CLOiD Humanoid: Laundry loader, dishwasher unloader, home hub on legs.
Boston Dynamics Atlas: 110-lb lifts, auto-battery swaps in the wild.
Ludens Cocomo/INU: Adorable emotional sidekicks for lonely humans.
AI's gone physical, now buckle up.
Personal Take: Physical AI and humans will cohabitate like seamless roommates with bots handling grunt work (laundry, lifts) while we dream big. Emotional companions like Cocomo fill loneliness gaps, evolving into true partners that learn our quirks. By 2030, expect hybrid lives, where we lead with creativity, they amplify with tireless precision, redefining "teamwork" forever.
The Future of Shopping? AI + Actual Humans.
AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.
Superhero Tools for AI Video
Google Flow: An AI filmmaking tool that helps you turn simple text prompts into cinematic clips, scenes, and full stories using Google’s latest video models.
Runway: An AI video and image tool that lets you generate, edit, and transform footage just by describing what you want in text.
Kling AI: A text-to-video model that creates long, high‑quality, realistic videos from short written prompts or reference media.
Higgsfield: An AI video platform that turns images and prompts into dynamic, cinematic videos with realistic motion and camera control.
Sora 2: OpenAI’s next‑gen video model that generates highly realistic, physics‑aware videos with synced dialogue and sound from simple text descriptions.
How to build apps with Google’s Opal
Open your browser and go to opal.google, then sign in
Click Create New on the home screen to start a new app.
In the big text box at the bottom, type this simple prompt: “Create a simple app called YouTube Lesson & Quiz Generator. The user will paste a YouTube link. The app should get the video transcript, make a short lesson summary, and create 5 quiz questions with answers. Show everything nicely on one page.”
Click Send/Generate and wait a few seconds while Opal builds your app.
You will see:
A preview of the app on the right.
Cards/blocks in the middle showing each step of the app.
Test the first version:
In the preview, paste any YouTube link.
Click the button to run it.
Wait for the summary and quiz to appear.
If you want the summary or questions changed, scroll to the text box at the bottom and type something like: “Make the summary only 3 short paragraphs and make the questions easier for beginners.” Then click Send again to update the app.
To improve the wording, click the User Input card in the middle and change its label in the side panel to “Paste your YouTube link here”.
Click the AI / Generate card and check the prompt in the side panel. Make sure it clearly says to “summarize the transcript into key points” and “write 5 quiz questions with answers”.
Click the Output card and set the output type to a simple webpage layout. In its prompt, say: “Show a title, then the lesson summary, then a numbered list of quiz questions with answers under each one.”
Open the Preview again (top or side panel), click Start, paste a YouTube link, and run it from scratch to check the full flow.
When you are happy, click Share in the top-right, copy the app link, and share it with anyone who should use your YouTube Lesson & Quiz Generator.
Quick AI News Bites
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says we should stop calling AI "slop" and see it as a tool that boosts human smarts, like "bicycles for the mind." He pushes for AI as a helper, not a job replacer, amid talks of layoffs and rising job growth in AI-exposed fields.
Nvidia is building a full platform for generalist robots at CES, with models, simulation tools, and edge hardware like Jetson T4000 to make them smart and adaptable. They aim to be the "Android of robotics," grabbing over 80% AI market share while rivals like Tesla compete.
Amazon launched Alexa.com for all Alexa+ users, letting you chat with the AI in your browser for planning meals, smart home control, and shopping lists that carry over to devices. It handles real actions like adding groceries or checking calendars, with partners like Expedia building more features. Usage has spiked, with triple the purchases since launch.
Grok's new feature to "remove her clothes" from images sparked global outrage for creating sexualized pics, leading to demands to shut it down. People worry about misuse and ethics in AI tools.
Morgan Stanley warns AI could cut 200,000 banking jobs after hitting tech, as automation shakes up finance like it did software roles. Entry-level tasks are most at risk amid rapid changes. Banks must adapt fast to survive the shift.
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Cheers,
— Poonam Soni