Key Takeaways
- In 35 states, specialized care and counseling is the top-scoring side gig that robot algorithms can’t thwart.
- Perhaps surprisingly, design followed in second place with 8 states, with construction snagging the #3 spot (the top side hustle in 5 states).
- One-state wonders education (Massachusetts) and personal care (Colorado) might make for great side gigs.
- Want a side hustle with a bright future? Avoid performing arts, which ranks last in 30 states.
It only makes sense that more Americans are turning to side hustles in an unsteady job market; currently, 36% of U.S. adults work outside their traditional 9-to-5 jobs. And whether they’re looking to supplement their income or get their foot in the door of a new industry, they’d be wise to seek out fields that can weather the AI storm.
After all, from strategy to number crunching and even the very human process of making art, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a corporate go-to for completing tasks in less time and with less expense. In fact, 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces in the upcoming years in favor of AI.
While some employees are seeing their jobs evaporate due to AI, others face more old-fashioned concerns like layoffs and return-to-office mandates. Many are looking for a new project that’s not on the radar of AI automation.
We wanted to see what the best AI-proof side hustles were.
So, we looked at employment opportunities, job concentration, and potential income across industries and states to find the best side hustles in every state — for workers who don’t want to see their side gig replaced by a machine or ChatGPT.
Which AI-Proof Side Hustles Dominate in Each State?
Education, which ranks tops in Massachusetts, is dead last in neighboring Rhode Island.
In Washington state, personal care takes last place, while in Colorado, it ranks highest.
And Oregon has little use for home help and maintenance, a field that includes house cleaning, lawn care, and home organization. While the field isn’t the top side-hustle in any state, it’s a close second in Arizona.
The numbers don’t always illuminate the reasons why some AI-proof side hustles are more concentrated in certain states.
What we can tell you is this: Specialized care and counseling is not just a growing field across the nation, but it’s a human-first field with jobs that can’t be replicated by AI code.
Specialized Care & Counseling: The #1 AI-Proof Side Gig in 35 States
If you want the highest year-over-year wage increases, explore specialized care and counseling in North Carolina. Want the biggest concentration of work in your field? That’s counseling in Oregon. And to benefit from the biggest sheer number of new job opportunities? Try counseling in California, where almost 120,000 new jobs emerged last year.
In the largest number of states, specialized care and counseling side gigs offer the most all around abundant, fastest-growing, and highest-paying AI-proof side hustle opportunities.
What are specialized care & counseling side gigs?
The field includes a wide range of independent health and mental health practitioners — and highlights a slew of side gigs that AI simply can’t replace. From online grief counselors to wellness & self-care consulting, and life-coaching to victim advocacy & crisis intervention specialists, and more — these jobs rely on human connection, empathy, and expertise.
It’s the top AI-proof job category in 35 states, with the total number of jobs ranging from 6,350 in sparsely populated South Dakota to over a million in California. Just Montana lost jobs in the field last year, with 315 fewer available positions.
Most of these job titles require a bachelor’s or master’s degree, in addition to licensure, but there are some pathways to working independently in many of these roles with a balance of education and experience in related fields. Seek certification in areas like wellness counseling or substance abuse peer support, or take a victim advocacy certification class and look for contract work with local advocacy centers or nonprofits.
Prospective side hustlers will find the biggest wage growth in the field in North Carolina, where year over year, the field’s average wage has surged 693%, and that comes with a spike of 8,909 more jobs in the field this year compared to last. Compare that to Nebraska, where Specialized Care and Counseling is the top side gig, but wages are down 87% compared to last year.
From Design to Construction: AI Can’t Build or Create Like You Can
There’s plenty of opportunity for those looking for design-related side hustles. From graphics to web and custom print and merch design, AI hasn’t displaced demand across multiple states. In Oklahoma, design tied with Specialized Care and Counseling for the top spot, but design topped all other fields in states as diverse as Virginia, New Hampshire, Alabama, and Wyoming.
Even with job opportunities dropping year-over-year in Virginia, Vermont, and Alabama, wage growth has been strong: New Hampshire’s 9.8% annual wage growth is still more than double the national average for all fields.
Construction is the top side hustle in unsurprising states with high growth, like Florida and Arizona. But it’s also a winner in states like Iowa and Wisconsin, and it ties for first in Louisiana. Though there are increasing job opportunities in every one of those states, Wisconsin leads the way with more than 55,000 jobs and the highest concentration of jobs locally versus the national average.
Looking for other options? In Massachusetts, education side hustles are A+ options, with more than 21,000 statewide job opportunities, high job concentration versus the national average, and year-over-year wage increases of 30%.
And Coloradans should check out personal care side hustles, including jobs like freelance hair stylist, makeup artist, and massage therapist. They’ll find 2,379 more jobs in the field than last year and one of the highest concentrations of any field when compared to the national average, indicating much more demand locally than elsewhere.
The Worst Side Hustles for AI-Proofing Your Future Earnings
It’s time to stop honing your circus act and set aside your monologue.
While it ranks as the 3rd-best side hustle in the District of Columbia, the field of performing arts comes in dead last in 30 total states. That puts a damper on side hustle dreams in a number of diverse areas outside the big tent or the theater district: this field includes not just event performers, voice actors, and actors, but also independent journalists, speakers, costume designers, and cartoonists.
Further, while it may seem that workers with repair skills can’t be readily replaced by AI, it’s also a side hustle that’s struggling, ranking last in 13 states. In Utah and Nevada, repair work ties for last with performing arts, but in states from New York to Michigan, Arizona, California, and Hawaii, hammering new grommets into that leather satchel or replacing a vacuum cleaner belt stand alone as the most out-of-demand skills.
These surprising side-hustle losers show that even in fields that aren’t thought to be influenced by AI, some jobs are still becoming obsolete. Whether that’s due to an influx of computerized voices or consumers turning to AI to help them troubleshoot their appliances, would-be side hustlers should look elsewhere.
To AI-Proof Your Side Hustle, Look to Growing Job Fields
While some fields are losing employees, others are growing. And that means more opportunities for part-timers looking to start a side-hustle that will stand the test of time.
But not every state is equal when it comes to AI-proofing your future side hustle. While a majority of states are hospitable to counselors, while offering limited opportunities for actors, others have unique opportunities for the right entrepreneur.
The key to success? Focus on fields with consistent, high demand and job growth year-over-year, including wage growth that demonstrates employers are ready and willing to pay for talent. When you hitch your side hustle to a growing industry, you’ll find your little business grows, too — even in an AI-driven world.
Methodology
We mined the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ultimately analyzing 8 categories of work that involved potential side hustles and contract work. They included:
- Specialized care and counseling
- Personal care
- Construction
- Home help and maintenance
- Education
- Performing arts
- Repair
- Design
We ranked each field in every state and the District of Columbia according to three categories:
- Job Stability and Growth: Considering employment opportunities for the first quarter 2025, with more jobs indicating more opportunities, and calculating year-over-year numeric employment growth (or decline) to show demand.
- Local Industry Concentration: Measuring how much job opportunity exists in the field in each state vis à vis the country as a whole for understanding where the most concentrated local demand could be found.
- Income Potential: Gauging average weekly wages to judge earning potential and calculating year-over-year weekly wage increases to measure potential growth in income over time in each field.
Finally, we normalized each category score from 0 to 10 and averaged all scores for a total score in each field on a per-state basis.
