Looking back over the years, this question has been posed over and again, albeit in slightly different formats.
Quality Assistance comes from both Automation and Manual validation. Both are intertwined and neither should be considered as the one and only, the ‘holy grail’.
Test Automation and Automated Tests should be designed, in such a way so as that they complement Manual validation, and vice versa.
The benefits of running both work streams far outweighs a single solution and therefore, in my opinion, Automation is not and, more to the point, cannot take away the necessity for Manual validation.
Personally, I don’t think we can say there are job cuts for Manual QA, but I do see the need to evolve and adapt, to compliment the ever-increasing world of automation.