Then they can find employment in industries facing dire shortages like education and nursing. If the only goal is to put unqualified people into seats for a paycheck then it doesn’t matter what they do for income.
However, retraining may become really hard. Especially if you're already, say, a 60 year old programmer (or business analyst, or executive assistant, etc.) who suddenly needs to become a (AI assisted) teacher or nurse.
In these cases, that's entirely independent from AI, but I suspect that AI will only make it harder.
And yes, it feels to me like society is failing for many people who are approaching retirement age.
Or are they just unwilling to take a rank-and-file position?
They have both been on the market for a few years by now.
1. Nobody will hire them as rank-and-file. It just doesn't make sense.
2. At least one of them has received offers to be the ethical maskerade for a company that actually violently goes against their ethics. They said "no".
Last time I heard from them, they were both retraining in very different domains... with limited career success.