🦾How You Can Leverage:

Exactly one year ago, we asked (and answered!) the same question. 

So to celebrate our one-year anniversary of Everyday AI, we asked (and answered!) the exact same question. 

No one wants to talk about it. 

Everyone’s thinking about it. 

Will AI take our jobs? 

Short answer = yes. 

Long answer 👇

We brought facts, thousands of hours of research, studies and trends to today’s show. 

And more receipts than the 3 rolls of paper CVS uses for a single item. 

Full disclosure — we don’t want AI job displacement to happen. But it’s going to. And we don’t take this position lightly. 

Over the past year, we’ve interviewed 100+ global names (and everyday AI leaders!) on Generative AI. 

• We’ve had countless off-the-record and behind-the-scenes convos.

• We’ve trained thousands of people on properly using GenAI. 

• We’ve read thousands of news stories and hundreds of pages of AI research. 

So today’s convo isn’t some random hunch we had in our stomach. This is research, global sentiment and factual trends all rolled up in one giant show. 

It’s a longer one fosho. 

But worth your time? 

We can’t possibly break down this behemoth episode down into one newsletter, so we’re giving you the tl;dw breakdown below. 

Let’s get it. 👏

On AI and job loss, the experts say: 

McKinsey Digital 

“Current generative AI and other technologies have the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60 to 70 percent of employees’ time today.” 

Goldman Sachs

“We find that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. Extrapolating our estimates globally suggests that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300mn full-time jobs to automation.”

World Economic Forum and the International Monetary Fund

“In advanced economies, about 60 percent of jobs are exposed to AI, due to prevalence of cognitive-task-oriented jobs”

7 Common Misconceptions about AI and Job Loss

Misconception 1: AI won't take your job, someone using AI will take your job

Naaaah, shorties. This is clickbait on the internet, and couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Misconception 2: AI cannot perform at a human level

(*Rafiki voice from Lion King*) Nope! Wrong again. Ah-ha-ha!

AI is already outperforming humans in specific tasks. We're on the cusp of Artificial General Intelligence. If you really think AI can’t perform narrow knowledge based tasks better than humans, then you’ve got some reading to do. 

Misconception 3: AI will only affect low-skilled jobs

(Buzzer sound denoting wrong answer) High-skilled workers are also at risk. Even college grads with hefty salaries aren't safe from AI job disruption.

Misconception 4: Human intelligence, creativity, and empathy can't be replicated by AI

Wrong, wrong and wrong!

AI can problem-solve, get creative, and even show empathy. It's more capable than you might think. And we shared specific examples on today’s show. 

Misconception 5: AI has been around for decades and hasn’t disrupted jobs

Misleading. AI has been around for decades, but has required like a handful of PhDs and a bajillion dollars to use. Generative AI is (arguably) brand spankin new, which is why the whole job disruption thing is just starting. 

Misconception 6: Jobs historically evolve and shift; AI is just a part of that

From the transition out of the Industrial Revolution to the emergence of the Dot-Com era, U.S. job sectors have always shifted and then evened out. AI is not like that. 

(Don’t get mad at us. We’re just telling you facts y’all.) 

Misconception 7: AI Will Create more jobs than it takes.

Billions of dollars are being invested into future AI systems that negate the need for humans to control.

Big tech layoffs due to Ai

So we believe tens of millions of new jobs will be created that don’t exist now. But it won’t come near the number of jobs that are displaced. 

• Big tech companies are cutting jobs because of AI. 

• IBM announced 7,800 jobs wouldn't be filled due to AI.

• Google laid off hundreds in its sales team due to AI.

• UPS announced 12,000 jobs would be cut due to AI advancements.

• SAP announced plans to restructure 8,000 roles due to AI.

• Cisco announced 4,000 employees would be laid off to focus on AI.

• Google CEO warned employees about layoffs due to AI.

• Instacart cut nearly 2,000 jobs to focus on AI.

• Coinbase laid off 20% of its workforce due to AI automation.

• Anthropic laid off 20% of its workforce to focus on AI safety.

Talk about AI and grow 

In their earnings calls, big public companies found a cheat code. The more they talk about AI (and implement it) the more money they make. 

Here’s a chart from FactSheet that shows the public companies that talked the most about AI, and then our original research below in green which shows these companies’ 1Y stock growth. 

Lay off humans and… grow? 

Yup. 

That seems to be a trend.

Below is some of our original research. The layoff numbers come from Layoffs.fyi, which tracks tech company layoffs.

We compiled the 20 largest company layoffs from public U.S. companies in the past year, and then looked up the change in their stock price over the past 1 year. (Right column, labeled 1Y stock.)

Shocker? (Lolz) — Wall Street might hate employees?

Companies that went through huge layoffs (obviously) saw their public valuations and market caps rise. 

What the future holds

1 – The ‘real’ ChatGPT moment hasn’t happened.

Between the impending GPT-5, billions of dollars invested by Microsoft and reported ChatGPT agents, we see upcoming moves by OpenAI making a much larger splash than the original ChatGPT release that started this GenAI wave. 

2 – Programmable expert agents are coming quickly.

Think Robotic Process Automation meets Large Language Models meets Subject Matter experts. 

The biggest names in the game (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Meta, Google, etc.) are building AI agents who will learn how we work and emulate and perform those tasks for us. (Layered with your company’s data)

3 – Your Expertise becomes your AI.

We recently talked with public company LanzaTech about how they turned 30,000 pages of their research into a LLM that saves them up to 90% of their time. 

Wowza. 

This is 2024 in a nutshell. 

If your company hasn’t already started this process, they could be in trouble. 

What you should do about it:

You: Thanks, Jordan. You big jerk. You scared me about all this AI stuff. 

Jordan: Just facts, homies. This isn’t meant to scare you. If you’re reading this now, you’re still ahead of your peers. Do something about it. 

Real talk, we get how the future of an AI everywhere business world is scary. 

• We study this (literally) every day. 

• Obsess over it. 

• Relentlessly researching it. 

We might be wrong on a bullet point or three above, but the sentiment is clear and undeniable: 

GenAI is going to change how business gets done, and completely flip standard business practices on their head. 

Here’s our 2 cents on what you need to do: 

• Don’t treat AI as an enemy. Work with it. 

• Unlearn good business behaviors. 

• Shift your thinking about knowledge work.

• Gain new skills to become a GenAI generalist. 

• Understand domain-specific expertise is becoming less valuable.

• Traditionally valuable knowledge will become commoditized.

• Learn and practice AI every. dang. day.

Welp. 

That was a book and a half. 

Still reading this? 

A bit worried about where your company stands? 

(We’ve got a free offer for everyone who participates in our referral contest and refers someone today, so scoot your booty and send and share your referral link!)