Top 5 Jobs in Education That Are Most at Risk from AI in Newark - And How to Adapt

Newark is moving quickly from pilots to scale: the district plans K–3 AI screening this fall under New Jersey's Literacy Framework and the board approved a two‑year contract for the Amira screener (not to exceed $900,000), while earlier pilots of Khanmigo and other tutoring tools show promise for targeted recovery work - actions that make AI fluency a workplace skill for teachers, tutors, and administrators who must interpret screener outputs for more than 11,000 English‑learner students; see the Chalkbeat report on Newark's Amira rollout for details on implementation and cautions about accents and bias Chalkbeat report on Newark Amira rollout.

Local efforts to expand access - community training and university institutes - mean practical training paths matter now, such as Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (15-week practical AI skills for the workplace) to build prompt and tool skills educators and staff will use on the job.

“I tell people all the time – it allows you to punch above your weight dramatically.” - Monk Inyang

To identify the five education roles in Newark most at risk from AI, the team triangulated three evidence streams: a state-aware survey that flags which professions are anxious in specific states (Careerminds' 2025 survey noted graphic designers among the worried in New Jersey), broad sector analyses that map which task types AI already automates (Careerminds' “AI Taking Over Jobs” synthesis of WEF/McKinsey findings showing administrative, customer‑service and routine data tasks are highest risk), and government research on worker vulnerability that highlights education-level and routine‑task exposure as major risk factors (GAO's automation guidance on who is most affected and which skills matter).

Criteria used: task routineness, frequency of structured inputs (forms, transcripts, screener outputs), current local adoption signals (Newark pilots and contracts), and workforce demographics (education, role seniority).

The result: roles that combine high volumes of repeatable documentation or scripted interaction - rather than those centered on high‑touch pedagogy - rose to the top; notably, a 3,034‑respondent state survey gave a measurable NJ signal, so the methodology prioritizes local sentiment as a tie‑breaker where national signals were ambiguous.

Sources: Careerminds 2025 state survey on AI job anxiety, Careerminds 2025 sector analysis “AI Taking Over Jobs”, and the GAO analysis on which workers are most affected by automation.

Graphic designers working in K–12 and higher‑ed settings face shifting demand toward faster, platform‑specific work: school postings stress not only polished print materials but short social videos, ADA‑compliant web graphics, and templates that scale across campaigns, so designers who can move from InDesign and Illustrator into Premiere/After Effects and accessible design stay most marketable - Prince George's County Public Schools explicitly lists Adobe Creative Cloud proficiency and a minimum of three years' relevant experience as baseline qualifications (Prince George's County Public Schools graphic designer job posting), while district roles more broadly expect layout, pre‑press, and multimedia skills that speed production for events and enrollment drives (see similar duties in the LACCD posting).

For Newark designers, the practical “so what” is clear: prioritize Adobe CC + short‑form video and ADA training now, and combine that with workplace AI literacy via targeted courses like Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work to automate routine exports and focus creative time on strategy and brand storytelling (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp syllabus and action checklist).

In Newark and across New Jersey, data entry clerks face high automation risk because AI excels at structured, repetitive inputs - Wichita State's analysis flags “data entry clerks” as especially vulnerable where jobs are mainly form‑filling or batch entry, and typical office roles (scheduling, document management) map to that same exposure: Wichita State AI job impacts analysis for data entry clerks.

Practical adaptation shifts staff from keystrokes to insights: office automation skills (spreadsheets, databases, document workflows) are a bridge into basic analytics roles that interpret screener outputs and enrollment data, while classroom examples show freeing time from gradebook entry lets teachers deliver the immediate, formative feedback that a multi‑year study tied to better learning outcomes; read a first‑hand account: Grow Beyond Grades teacher account on moving from data entry to formative feedback.

For Newark educators and clerical staff, an actionable next step is targeted reskilling - short courses in spreadsheets, basic SQL/visualization, and ethical AI prompts - paired with local training checklists such as the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration page, so routine work can be automated while staff move into school‑level analytics and student‑facing insights.

“Prior to my gradeless classroom, I was a data entry clerk posing as a teacher.”

Front‑desk and admissions customer service roles in Newark are among the most exposed because AI chatbots and agentic assistants can handle scripted FAQs, document checks, and basic lead‑nurturing at scale - tools that “do more with less” at the top of the funnel and shave admissions workload, as higher‑ed teams are already piloting to reduce burnout and manage ballooning application pools (How AI can ease admissions workloads and handle inquiries (University Business)).

Real results: one school's AI system handled nearly 12,000 inquiries in eight months and coincided with a 32% enrollment boost, showing how automation can reallocate staff time.

The clear adaptation path for Newark staff is to specialize in human‑centered, high‑impact work - complex financial‑aid counseling, equity‑focused case review, mission‑directed decision audit, and conversational escalation - while gaining practical AI oversight and data‑literacy skills so recommendations are checked against students' full context (USC Rossier's analysis stresses training admissions professionals to work with AI and preserve the human element) (USC Rossier analysis on AI in college admissions: risks, equity, and oversight); that pivot turns displacement risk into a chance to own enrollment outcomes and protect student voice.

“Synthesizing information with AI, I can see that happening, but I don't think you'll ever take away from the human element.” - Ryan Motevalli-Oliner ME '20, associate dean for enrollment operations

Video editors in Newark schools face growing automation of routine tasks - assembling takes, syncing audio, and producing captioned short clips can now be handled by faster tools - so the highest‑value work shifts to curriculum alignment, accessibility, and visual storytelling for micro‑lessons; editors who master Premiere/After Effects workflows, ADA captioning, and rapid instructional sequencing will be the ones schools keep on staff.

Practical steps: follow school production best practices for equipment and workflows to keep shoot‑to‑publish time tight (School video production guide for K–12), earn a verifiable credential such as the Adobe Certified Professional in Premiere Pro to signal technical competence and consistency (Adobe Certified Professional Premiere Pro video‑editing certification), and add AI workplace skills so routine cuts and caption drafts are automated while editors focus on pedagogy and engagement (see Nucamp's practical AI prompts and use cases for education teams) (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus with AI prompts and use cases for education).

The takeaway: combine school‑production know‑how with a recognized certification and basic AI tooling to move from repeatable edit tasks into instructional media roles that directly affect classroom learning.

Business intelligence analysts in Newark face a two‑fold shift: routine reporting and scheduled dashboards - tasks O*NET lists as core BI duties - are increasingly handled by AI copilots and automated pipelines, while demand grows for analysts who can validate models, curate semantic metrics, and translate AI outputs into equitable decisions for students; this matters locally because districts using screeners and enrollment systems need analysts who stop at explanation and start at governance and action.

Practical augmentation means learning the toolchain and oversight skills named across industry guidance - SQL and cloud warehouses, Power BI/Tableau dashboards, data modeling and semantic layers, plus prompt‑level AI literacy - so that time saved on routine extracts is reallocated to strategy, fairness checks, and stakeholder communication; certifications and short credentials (CompTIA Data+, Power BI/Tableau certificates) signal readiness and help protect the high median pay for BI roles (CompTIA reports a roughly six‑figure median).

For Newark education teams, the clear “so what” is this: BI analysts who pair technical depth with AI governance can move from producing reports to steering interventions that improve outcomes for tens of thousands of students.

Read more on role tasks and tech expectations via O*NET job database for business intelligence analysts and practical upskilling pathways and tools in Ziplines analytics tools and resources and CompTIA professional certifications and guidance.

Practical next steps for Newark education workers: start by mapping the routine, repeatable tasks in your day - attendance, gradebook entry, admissions FAQs, captioning - and flag which can be automated so staff time shifts to student‑facing judgment, equity checks, and curriculum alignment; evidence from local pilots (Khanmigo and classroom AI experiments) shows districts are already testing tools in Newark, so prepare now by learning how to evaluate tutor outputs and screener reports (Chalkbeat: Newark students using AI for career exploration) and by insisting on community oversight for surveillance and privacy decisions where they arise (NJ Spotlight: AI implications for student privacy and school safety).

Invest in short, practical reskilling - basic analytics, ethical prompting, and tool governance - and consider Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work to gain promptcraft and workplace AI skills (first payment due at registration) so you can move from reactive displacement to leading AI‑literate school practice and protect student outcomes: translate time saved by automation into higher‑value counseling, intervention design, and fairness reviews (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration and syllabus).

“People made this, people are making decisions about it, and there are pros and cons like with everything people make and we should be talking about this.” - Michael Taubman