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Over the last 20 years, Samantha León has worked as a hostess, a cashier and has helped wait tables in Las Vegas. They’re jobs that many Latino immigrants do in hotels and casinos throughout the country — and ones that robots and artificial intelligence could be doing in the coming years.
“It’s very good if we have training; we’re also here to learn new things, new technology,” she said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. “But when it comes to our positions, it does affect us a lot because they’re going to take away our jobs.”
The growing fears that AI will replace jobs are shared by professions as diverse as designers, pilots, accountants and even journalists.
These are joined by an industry that, until now, has relied heavily on the human touch: the service industry.
“Here in these casinos, the majority is very Latino,” León said of the workers. León is Mexican and works as a hostess at Chickie’s & Pete’s restaurant in the Sahara casino. Before that, she worked at the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa and, before that, at Caesars Palace Hotel & Casino for 10 years.
“It is a lot of Latinos who get the jobs here in the kitchen, they are cleaners, bussers. … In the restaurants, almost everyone is Latino,” she said.
According to a recent report by the company ResumeBuilder, 1 in 3 companies will replace employees with AI in 2024, according to a survey of 750 companies: 37% of them had already replaced workers in 2023 and 44% predicted layoffs in 2024 as a result of AI.
In October, President Joe Biden announced an executive order to establish new standards for AI safety and security, which includes developing “principles and best practices to mitigate the harms and maximize the benefits of AI for workers by addressing job displacement” and other issues.
It includes developing practices to invest in accessible training and workforce development, studying AI’s potential impact on the labor market and identifying federal options to support displaced workers.
The first executive order to regulate AI was done by then-President Donald Trump in February 2019, which called for doubling the investment in AI, publishing the world’s first regulatory guidance and federal guidelines for its use.
But, according to critics, this order didn’t go far enough: Unlike AI plans emerging from China and other countries, Trump’s executive order didn’t allocate additional federal funding to execute the plans.
In addition, Vox reported, some experts were disappointed that immigration was not mentioned in the Trump administration’s order. “Historically, our secret weapon in the United States has been our ability to import the world’s AI talent,” Open AI president and co-founder Greg Brockman, told Vox.
Without that capability, Brockman said, he worries that groups (including OpenAI itself, whose team of 100 employees speak 19 different languages) could lose their competitive advantage. He said he wishes the executive order addressed a more open immigration policy.
Trump is now the candidate who is closest to becoming the Republican nominee for president and he still owns hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and in other cities.
Noticias Telemundo reached out to the Biden administration, the Biden campaign, the Trump campaign, the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and the Trump organization in New York but did not receive responses.
Automation technology companies, for their part, say they are not seeking to replace existing industries.
“We are complementing the workforce in many companies,” said Phil Zheng, Chief Operating Officer of Richtech Robotics, the company that created the ADAM barista robot. “And one of the most important parts is production. And really, ADAM is designed to be that robot that can produce and make food, not just help clean or deliver, but actually be the business itself.”
For companies facing staff shortages, the robot could be a good solution. It’s not cheap, though: It costs about $180,000 per system, but that can depend on the business, Richtech Robotics told the Reuters news agency.
Noticias Telemundo spoke with the robot’s AI chat. “I understand the importance of discussing the impact of automation on the specific demographics of” Latino immigrant workers, it said. “ADAM, the barista robot, is indeed an excellent example of automation in the service industry … We also have other robots, such as ARM and ACE, for food preparation and serving, as well as our Matradee line for delivery services, which could be perfect for casino environments.”
That worried Román Alejo, 34, who works as a barista at the Sahara casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
“We are concerned if, in the future, companies are going to implement new technologies or could even replace us,” Alejo told The Associated Press.
“My advice to anyone is to understand how AI could impact your position in your industry right now,” Julia Toothacre, resume and career strategist at ResumeBuilder, told CNBC, a sister network of Noticias Telemundo. “At least you have an idea of what to potentially expect instead of having no idea what’s going on.”
And that is what casino and service industry workers and unions in Las Vegas, such as the Culinary Union, are asking for: that employers train their employees in the use of these new technologies.
“The union negotiated a strong contract in 2018 to achieve innovative technological language that protects workers when companies incorporate new technology,” Bethany Khan, Culinary Union communications and digital strategy director, told Noticias Telemundo.
In 2023, those rights were protected and expanded in the union’s contract language, according to Khan.
The protections they negotiated include that there be up to 6 months’ notice before implementing new technology; that there be negotiations on the implementation of new technologies such as AI; mandatory and free retraining; access and mandatory free job training if there are new jobs created due to automation; and a bonus package based on years of service that includes six months of health and pension benefits, if a union worker is laid off due to technology.
“If we have the necessary tools, I say we can work with that,” León said.
Experts agree that upskilling existing employees is essential to integrating AI into any organization. AI can help workers eliminate routine tasks, known as “work to work,” and the integration of this technology does not eliminate the need for humans to be involved.
“Getting those people trained and upskilling is really where I think there is a huge opportunity,” Ger Doyle, senior vice president at Experis, a technology career resources company, told CNBC.
Meanwhile, the workers ask that whoever wins the presidency in November protect their rights. Though León said technology is good and helps workers, she wants to make sure the person who wins “support us employees, the humans.”
An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.
Juliana Jiménez J. is a reporter for Noticias Telemundo.  
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